Ex-female Thai PM:Impeachment is against law

BANGKOK, January 9 (TNA) - Former female Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra claims that an ongoing impeachment process brought against her by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) over her role in her previous administration's rice-pledging scheme appears to be “unlawful” because "she has already been impeached". Defending herself before the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) at Bangkok's Parliament building on Friday, Yingluck said what NLA members are considering is significant and should have some impacts towards the national administration and economy in large-scale because she is no longer a Thai prime minister and she has been earlier impeached thrice. Yingluck told the NLA that the first time was when the Thai Parliament was dissolved, the second was from a ruling of the Constitutional Court and the third by the intervention of the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on May 22, 2014. Yingluck pointed out that NCPO ousted her government and scrapped Thailand's 2007 Constitution. Yingluck stressed she no longer has any political position left and if the impeachment process is continued, it will be like a “duplication of impeachment” and it is against the law, while also creating an injustice for the future. The former and only female Thai premier cautioned that continued findings by NLA would not only affect herself, but also all Thai agriculturists who are the majority of the Thai population. Insisting that she is innocent, the ex-female Thai premier opined what is the use of attempts on creating national reform the incumbent government and NLA members want to achieve when the Thai society feels that the ongoing process violates legal procedures. Yingluck was also chairwoman of the National Rice Policy Committee (NRPC) when she was the prime minister. Her government-sponsored rice-pledging programme has been accused by NACC of corruption, causing a total loss of about 680 billion baht to the state. Security around the Parliament building was heightened, with no exception to journalists covering the session, as they were told by police to stay only in an area reserved for the press. Despite the tight security, Yingluck’s supporters turned up and presented flowers to her. Yingluck later told journalists after the impeachment session that she was relieved and was not worried following her clarifications into all NACC's accusations against her role in the rice-pledging scheme. (TNA)