<g data-gr-id="24">Thailand’s Supreme</g> Court on Monday dismissed ousted former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s petition to delay the trial in a controversial rice subsidy scheme that could jail the country’s first woman premier for 10 years.
The Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions also dismissed her petitions to reject prosecution’s additional documented evidence and witnesses in the case that is said to have caused losses of more than 500 billion baht (around $15 billion).
<g data-gr-id="15">The decisions were</g> announced during?the first hearing of the case against 48-year-old Yingluck, who is accused of dereliction of duty and failing to stop corruption and losses in the flagship rice-pledging scheme implemented by her government.
In the first petition, Yingluck asked the court to delay the trial, arguing that the case was not within the jurisdiction of the court’s criminal division for holders of political positions and should rightfully?be in the Administrative Court. The Court dismissed the petition.