Guilty verdict for Thailand’s Yingluck may stoke anger

BANGKOK: A long-awaited verdict in the trial of former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra this week could inflame tension and would likely have far-reaching implications in the politically divided kingdom.

The ruling military said more than 3,000 of Yingluck’s supporters could show up at the court on Friday in what would be one of the biggest political gatherings since Yingluck’s government was ousted in a 2014 coup.

Thousands of policemen will be on hand in a bid to head off the sort of trouble that has become a hallmark of antagonistic Thai politics over the past decade or more. Yingluck has been accused of negligence in her handling of a multi-billion dollar rice subsidy scheme, under which the government bought rice from farmers at inflated prices. That led to stockpiles of rotting grain, distorted world prices and lost Thailand its crown as the world’s top exporter. Losses amounted to $8 billion, this government says.

Critics said the scheme was engineered by Yingluck’s brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to shore up support among rural voters who have handed electoral victory to a Shinawatra party in every election since 2001.Yingluck has denied wrongdoing and has said she is the victim of political persecution.

She faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of negligence. A military-backed legislature found her guilty in a separate impeachment case in 2015, and banned her from politics for five years, for failing to exercise sufficient oversight of the subsidy scheme.

Despite that, Yingluck remains the unofficial face of the Shinawatra political machine, which, supporters say, the royalist-military establishment is determined to sideline once and for all. Opposition activists said a guilty verdict would fuel anti-government anger and could spark a smattering of small protests in defiance of a government ban, particularly in the north and northeast where support for the Shinawatras appears unwavering. "If she is found guilty there will surely be some action by underground resistance forces," said a leader of the pro-Shinawatra "red shirt" movement in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen who declined to be identified.

"There are plans to burn tyres at up to 10 locations in Khon Kaen." A spokeswoman said Yingluck did not agree with the threat by the activist leader to use force, and her party said any support for her should be peaceful. Yingluck was at her Bangkok home on Wednesday, where she donated alms to Buddhist monks, and was preparing for the court’s decision, her lawyer said.