Stay at home: Yingluck

[webfact]

Stay at home: Yingluck

By The Nation

 

Steel barricades go up around the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Chaeng Wattana Road yesterday.

 

BANGKOK: -- Prayut urges public to accept cases as normal judicial procedures, warning that inciting support for one side could split the country.

ON THE EVE of an historic Supreme Court verdict that could change the course of politics, there were calls for calm yesterday amid all-out efforts by security authorities to prevent untoward incidents following warnings of “third party” violence meant to sow chaos.

 

Embattled former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra asked her supporters yesterday not to gather at the Supreme Court today, when the verdict is expected in the negligence case against her.

 

Yingluck posted on her Facebook page, which has 6 million followers, that she wanted to avoid possible chaos caused by a third party. 

 

 

“I care for everyone, be you the people or my Facebook followers. And I don’t want any instigation, which possibly could be brought by a third party, to occur as the security authorities have always said,” Yingluck wrote. 

 

“I’d like to ask that everyone who cares for me, not to go to the court [today]. Instead, I’d like everyone to wait for the news at home to avoid the risk posed by people having ill intentions towards the country and towards us.” 

 

The former prime minister also said she acknowledged the compassion and good wishes of people who were aware of her suffering. However, they could not be closely in touch, as they had been in the past, due to the strict security measures, Yingluck wrote. 

 

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders is set today to hand down verdicts in two separate cases stemming from the Yingluck government’s rice-pledging scheme – the negligence case against Yingluck and the malfeasance case against her commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and 27 others.

 

If convicted of dereliction of duty, Yingluck could face up to 10 years in jail. She could also be liable to pay more than Bt35 billion lost because of alleged mismanagement in the implementation of the rice-subsidy policy. 

 

 

Thousands of supporters are expected to show up to give Yingluck moral support today. Security authorities have prepared measures to deal with large crowds while also advising people against travelling to the court.

 

However, the reading of the verdict could be postponed if any of the defendants fails to show up today, according to legal experts.

 

Yingluck’s lawyer confirmed that she would attend the hearing but no such assurances were forthcoming from the other defendants, Boonsong, his former deputy Poom Sarapol and 26 others, including state officials and business executives. It remained unclear whether all 28 defendants would attend today.

 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday condemned any attempts to pressure the courts hearing corruption cases.

 

 

“Speaking about the problem of law enforcement, today there is one case – one in 100,000, or one in a million cases – that has caused a lot of confusion,” Prayut said at a forum on national reform.

 

He urged members of the public to view such court cases as normal. “If you commit wrongdoing, your case is brought to court. Courts have to rely on evidence before issuing a verdict. If you incite people to support you, society will be split into people who agree and disagree with you. Courts will not be able to do anything. And the country will be in chaos,” the prime minister said.

 

In a previous reference to the court case yesterday, Prayut said he would not have to appoint people that he trusted as military commanders before he steps down ahead of the election.

 

“I don’t need anybody to protect me. People in power need to do good to protect themselves. Your appointees can’t actually protect you. Look at the [ongoing] cases in court. Can anyone protect them?” he said, without elaborating. 

 

The prime minister is scheduled today to preside over a Labour Ministry ceremony to present Thailand Labour Management Excellence Awards to outstanding businesses, according to Sumet Mahosot, director-general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare. The event will be held at Impact exhibition hall at Muangthong Thani in Nonthaburi, which is just a short distance from the Supreme Court.

 

Meanwhile, the red-shirt umbrella group United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) promised yesterday to accept today’s Supreme Court ruling in the case against Yingluck, even though members “sincerely believed” that she had not committed the alleged wrongdoing. They added that there was no plan to challenge the judicial system or cause unrest.

 

The UDD maintained that it had not been arranging free trips for Yingluck’s supporters to gather at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.

 

It added, however, that people had the right to travel from the provinces to show moral support for the premier in a peaceful and lawful manner. The group also called on authorities to stop blocking and threatening people.

 

Several hundred Yingluck supporters have travelled in small groups from different provinces to Bangkok, according to red-shirt sources. Most of them travelled separately via private vehicles, airplanes and trains, the sources said yesterday. 

 

Police have secured the Supreme Court’s compound, with bomb disposal experts and a canine patrol unit being dispatched as part of the security measures and Metropolitan police have installed barricades around off-limits areas. 

 

Plain-clothes police officers will also be deployed to mingle with the crowd gathering at the court today, according to Metropolitan Police deputy commander Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon.

 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30324804

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-25

[NCC1701A]

8:23am: Even Yingluck’s team of staff and former Pheu Thai MPs may have no idea whereabouts of Yingluck. Reporters at the court talk to them and they say they are just waiting at the court.

8:15am: Yingluck is still not seen as leaving home, leading to speculation that she may stay overnight somewhere lese, not at home.

[LivinLOS]

You mean to say that the Junta doesnt have her under 24H watch from secret service operatives.. 

 

come on.. 

[coulson]

Lol, very considerate of her since she effectively wasn't planning to go anyway.

[peterpop]

Little doubt that it was a magnet for Agents Provocateur.

 

[MyFriend You]

I hope this doesn't turn out to be  a "suicide" situation.

[ianf]

Yingluck always swore that she would not run away. A bit like her so-called brother then.