OAG demands more proof to proceed with rice corruption case

BANGKOK, 4 September 2014 – After finding a lack of evidence, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is set to form a team with the anti-graft agency to deepen the probe into the rice corruption allegation against former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Attorney General Trakul Winitnaiyapak has today reviewed the case file submitted by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) against Ms Yingluck over her alleged dereliction of duty in preventing fraud in the rice pledging scheme during her administration. The scheme was earlier confirmed to have incurred over 500 billion baht worth of damage on the nation. At this stage, the Attorney General decided not to prosecute the former premier just yet, citing parts of the evidence provided by the plaintiff were still unclear. Judging from the proof at hand, he cast doubt over whether Ms Yingluck did have the power to prevent corruption from happening and whether she did neglect to exercise that power as alleged. In addition, it was recommended that more hard, detailed evidence be submitted to clarify all incidents of corruption in every process. According to Mr Trakul, the OAG will establish a joint committee with the NACC in pursuit of necesarry information to strengthen the case file. He said the extra probe will take no longer than 14 days to complete before a decision is made whether or not the case should be forwarded to the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions.