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Thai PM dismisses charge of corruption
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Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra protested her innocence yesterday after an anti-corruption panel filed charges of neglect of duty that could lead to her removal from office.
The premier is under intense pressure from various legal challenges and almost four months of mass street protests demanding her resignation.
Yingluck questioned why the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) into an expensive rice subsidy scheme had apparently been fast-tracked.
“I reaffirm that I am innocent of the accusations by the NACC,” Yingluck said on her official Facebook page.
“Even though I am accused of criminal charges and face removal (from office), which were the wishes of people who want to overthrow the government, I am willing to cooperate to establish the facts,” she added.
The NACC says Yingluck ignored warnings that the rice scheme was fostering corruption and causing losses. She has been summoned to hear the charges on February 27.
Critics say the scheme, which guarantees farmers above-market rates, has encouraged corruption, drained the public coffers and left the country with a mountain of unsold stock.
Yingluck said she was trying to improve the lives of farmers, some of whom have staged protests as they have not been paid for months under the scheme — a delay the government blames on the demonstrations.
Hundreds of farmers in trucks and tractors headed toward the capital yesterday, amid reports that they plan to go to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport today to demand payment.
More than 1,000 soldiers and police are on standby.
Sixteen people have been killed and hundreds injured in gunfire and grenade blasts linked to the recent demonstrations.
Opposition demonstrators want Yingluck to make way for a temporary unelected government.
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