Ousted Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years

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AP, Bangkok :
Thailand’s top court on Wednesday sentenced ousted premier Yingluck Shinawata to five years in prison for criminal negligence, a verdict read in absentia after she fled the kingdom last month.
Yingluck’s administration was toppled in a 2014 coup and she was later put on trial for negligence over her government’s rice subsidy scheme, which is said to have cost billions of dollars.
She pleaded innocent and accused the ruling junta of a political witch-hunt.
But the Supreme Court in Bangkok deemed her guilty on Wednesday, saying she failed to stop corruption and losses in the rice programme.
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