BANGKOK, Aug 6 — Norawit Lalaeng, lawyer for Thailand’s former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, asked the attorney-general to listen to about 50 witnesses to defend her in the case in which she was accused of negligence of duty in her corruption-plagued rice-pledging scheme.
He filed a letter of Ms Yingluck complaining that corruption allegations against her roles in the rice scheme had no clear evidence and government rice stock examination by the National Council for Peace and Order (NACC) found lost and deteriorating rice forming less than one percent of all government rice stocks.
The finding contradicted with investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission that accused her, so Ms Yingluck would like to present about 50 additional witnesses for her defence.
The lawyer insisted that the request was not aimed at buying time but was a fundamental legal right of Ms Yingluck. She was ready to defend herself in the justice system, he said.
The NACC recently asked the attorney-general to press charges against Ms Yingluck in her past capacity as the chair of the National Rice Policy Committee.
