BANGKOK, Thailand – A minority of justices in the Supreme Administrative Court’s general assembly opposed the majority ruling requiring former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay over 10 billion baht in damages related to the controversial rice-pledging scheme.
Out of 56 justices, five dissented. Four of them argued the court should uphold the Central Administrative Court’s previous decision, which revoked the Finance Ministry’s order demanding Yingluck pay compensation. These justices cited that Yingluck had already forwarded reports from the Office of the Auditor-General—highlighting corruption in the scheme—to the Commerce Minister for corrective action. They concluded she should not bear personal responsibility.
One other dissenting judge agreed Yingluck should be held liable but suggested she should only pay 20% of the damages, after factoring in failures and flaws within the government system itself, including the overall rice management structure.
The majority ruling remains in effect, requiring Yingluck to compensate the state 10,028,861,880.83 baht for losses from the G2G (government-to-government) rice sales. (TNA)
