Thai court acquits self-exiled former PM Yingluck

Thailand’s Supreme Court on Monday acquitted former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of negligence, raising speculation she may follow her brother back to the country from self-exile.

In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the court ruled in favor of Yingluck, 56, and five other defendants, reported public broadcaster Thai PBS, in a case linked to a series of concessions for infrastructure development projects dating back to 2013, when she was at the head of government. Monday’s case was based on a complaint filed in 2022 by the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which accused the defendants of damaging the country by not following the bidding processes in the award of government infrastructure contracts valued at about 250 million baht (almost $7 million).

The judges also revoked the arrest warrant in this case against Yingluck, who in 2017 was sentenced in absentia to five years in jail over a rice-pledging scheme, years after her government was ousted by the 2014 military coup. Monday’s Supreme Court decision comes after the return to Thailand of her older brother and twice former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who in 2006 was also overthrown by the military.