BANGKOK: Thailand’s top court on Wednesday sentenced ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra 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 program.
“The court found that the defendant is guilty as charged... the court has sentenced her to five years in prison and the court also unanimously agreed that the sentence will not be suspended,” a judge said.
The verdict, which makes Yingluck’s return to the kingdom increasingly unlikely, said the leader “should have designated reasonable and effective regulations that could concretely prevent loss from the beginning of the program.”
“The defendant did not take such precaution therefore contributing to huge losses to farmers, state budget, Ministry of Finance, the country and the people,” it said.
After attending dozens of hearings in a trial that lasted more than one year, Yingluck failed to turn up for a ruling originally scheduled for August 25 — a day of high drama that left the kingdom dumbfounded.
The 50-year-old has not made any public appearance or comments since pulling the vanishing act. But there are widespread reports she joined her billionaire brother Thaksin, a former prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup, in Dubai.
Thaksin has kept a home in the city since he fled Thailand in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.
The two siblings lie at the heart of a political battle that has gnawed at Thailand for more than a decade.
Emerging on the scene in 2001, they won the loyalty of the rural and urban poor with groundbreaking welfare schemes in a sharply unequal country.
But their rise angered Bangkok’s army-allied elite, which repeatedly assailed their elected governments with coups or court rulings.
Yingluck’s downfall revolved around a scheme that saw her government purchase rice from farmers at nearly twice the market price.
It was wildly popular in the rural heartlands but slammed by critics as a costly and graft-riddled handout.
“There was corruption in every step if the rice pledging program,” the court verdict said, adding that it cost the country nearly $10 billion.
Thailand’s junta leaders deny having any prior knowledge of Yingluck’s plan to escape.
But many are unconvinced, given the junta’s tight security net and round-the-clock surveillance of the former leader over the course of the trial.
Analysts say Yingluck likely cut a deal with the military leaders, who are bent on erasing her powerful clan from the political scene.
“By getting Yingluck out of Thailand, the military gets rid of a potential thorn in their side who could become a martyr if jailed, or a powerful politician again if she is not,” said Paul Chambers, an expert on Thai politics.
On the eve of the verdict junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha declared his “spies” had informed him of Yingluck’s whereabouts, but said he would not reveal her location until after the judgment was delivered.
With both Yingluck and Thaksin now in exile, there are major questions about the future of their political dynasty and the pro-democracy “Red Shirt” movement formed by their supporters.
Ousted Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years for negligence
Ousted Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years for negligence
Sri Lankans demand screenings of Israeli visitors to keep out war criminals
- Israeli soldier reportedly fled Sri Lanka after Belgian-based NGO called for his arrest
- Sri Lankan protesters warn against Israeli soldiers vacationing in the country
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan civil society groups protested on Friday to demand special screenings of Israelis arriving in the country after a soldier accused of war crimes in Gaza was spotted in Colombo.
A video of the soldier boasting about the killing of a Palestinian civilian was posted by the Hind Rajab Foundation on Wednesday with an appeal to Sri Lankan authorities to arrest him, as the organization identified the man as staying in the country’s capital.
The Belgian-based NGO, which pursues legal action against Israeli military personnel involved in the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza over the past 14 months, has named the man as Gal Ferenbook, a member of an Israeli military infantry brigade.
The video, which the foundation said was posted by Ferenbook on his Instagram account on Aug. 9, showed him inside an armored vehicle in Gaza, looking at the remains of a dead person.
A second individual’s voice, speaking in Hebrew, mocked the situation and referred to Ferenbook as “our terminator,” while the soldier boasted about his involvement in the killing.
While Israeli TV Channel 12 reported on Thursday night that Ferenbook had fled Sri Lanka following the arrest request, his presence in the country has raised concerns about the arrival of other Israeli nationals.
“We are protesting against Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people and request that the Sri Lankan government stop Israeli soldiers from entering Sri Lanka to spend their holidays here,” said Swasthika Arulingam, human rights lawyer and leader of the People’s Struggle Movement, which co-organized Friday’s protest.
“Sri Lanka is a member of the UN, and it has an obligation to support the Palestinians and oppose Israeli atrocities at all costs.”
Arulingam told Arab News that there were fears over the impact of the presence of Israelis in the country on local communities.
“War criminals, particularly Israeli war criminals, when they come to Sri Lanka to have fun, they probably will be creating chaos in this country as well,” she said.
The fear was echoed by the National Unity Alliance, which called on the Sri Lankan government on Friday to introduce special immigration checks.
In a petition to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the party referred to the presence of Ferenbook in Colombo as raising “significant concerns for the security and well-being of Sri Lankan nationals.”
It also warned that allowing individuals accused of war crimes to to enter or remain within Sri Lankan borders could have “grave implications” on the country’s image and would undermine its commitment to justice and human rights.
“The government must monitor the Israelis who are coming ... the government must have a list of these war criminals who are coming into the country. They must be stopped at the airport itself, at the entrance ... We must take them into custody and then deport them immediately without allowing them to go into the country,” Azath Salley, NUA leader and former governor of the Western Province, told Arab News.
“We’ll monitor it, and we’ll ensure that we'll bring everybody together to protest against these criminals coming into the country.”
Anger in Germany after Elon Musk backs far right
- Musk post on X claims only the far-right AfD party can 'save Germany'
- Politicians from major parties accuse tech billionaire of interfering in election
FRANKFURT, Germany: A post from Elon Musk on his platform X that only the far-right AfD party can “save Germany” sparked accusations Friday that he was seeking to interfere in the country’s upcoming polls.
The tech billionaire posted the message over a video commentary that criticized the leader of Germany’s CDU party Friedrich Merz, on course to become the next chancellor, for his refusal to work with the AfD.
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has enjoyed a surge in the polls, and is currently second-placed, but mainstream parties have ruled out cooperating with it.
While the German government refused to be drawn on the comments by Musk, set to be “efficiency czar” under US President-elect Donald Trump, politicians from major parties reacted with outrage.
“It is threatening, irritating and unacceptable for a key figure in the future US government to interfere in the German election campaign,” Dennis Radtke, an MEP for the center-right CDU, told the Handelsblatt daily.
Germans are set to go to the polls on February 23 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition last month in a row over the budget.
Musk was a “threat to democracy in the Western world,” Radtke added, accusing the world’s richest man of turning X, previously called Twitter, into a “disinformation slingshot.”
Alex Schaefer, a lawmaker from Scholz’s center-left SPD party, said Musk’s post was “completely unacceptable.”
“We are very close to the Americans, but now bravery is required toward our friend. We object to interference in our election campaign,” Schaefer told the Tagesspiegel daily.
The AfD however celebrated Musk’s praise in its own X message, which said “millions of people have long recognized this — and the number is growing.”
The German government was reluctant to be drawn into commenting on Musk’s post, with a spokeswoman telling a regular press conference in Berlin that “freedom of expression also applies to X.”
But the spokeswoman, Christiane Hoffmann, added the government was worried about “how X has developed in recent years, especially since Elon Musk took over.”
Despite such concerns, the government had decided not to close their accounts on the platform as it remained “an important medium for reaching and informing people,” she said.
It is not the first time Musk has weighed in on German politics.
Last month he tweeted in German that “Olaf is a fool” after the collapse of Scholz’s government.
Arrests of pro-Palestine student protesters were rights violations, New York City mayoral candidate tells Arab News
- Zohran Mamdani urges ‘one set of rules’ for all city’s people
- Majority of New York Democrats want ‘end to the genocide’
CHICAGO: New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor of the city, has vowed to reverse the policies he claims Mayor Eric Adams imposed that punished pro-Palestine student protesters last spring.
More than 1,000 students were arrested and injured during a citywide police crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, while those supporting Israel were reportedly not targeted.
Many of the pro-Palestinian students were expelled from their universities or denied graduation because of the protests over 10 days last April.
Mamdani, who led a hunger strike in front of the White House last November to push for a Gaza ceasefire resolution, said that an American mayor should apply the law and morality equally to all the city’s people.
“It’s a position I hold as a reflection of consistency no matter the issue. It is one that is in line with the positions I hold when it comes to my own constituents.
“What I mean by that is I think New Yorkers are tired of politicians who speak out of both sides of their mouths, who have one set of rules for one set of people and then another set of rules for another set of people,” Mamdani said Thursday.
He added: “I think it’s time that we simply believe in the same things for all people. So, if we say that we believe in freedom and justice and safety and liberty, then how can we continue to draw the line at Palestinians?
“We know that the more you draw a line, the easier it gets to draw that line for more and more people, and the more you will end up justifying that which you might have previously considered to be unjustifiable.”
Mamdani said that if elected in the June 24, 2025, Democratic primary election, he would “treat everyone equally.”
“I think it absolutely extends also into policies and day-to-day impacts for New Yorkers, with one example to me being that as Democrats, we often rightfully talk about how guns on elementary school campuses, middle school campuses, high school campuses make that campus more unsafe.
“And we ridicule this Republican notion that the answer to gun violence is simply more armed officers on those sites of education,” Mamdani said.
“And yet when it comes to student organizing in support of policy and human rights, there were far too many elected officials in New York City who were supportive of the mayor’s decision to send the NYPD (New York Police Department) into Columbia and CUNY (City University of New York) campuses.
“And it is my belief in the necessity of consistent politics that leads me to say I will not be sending the police in to respond to an encampment of the like that we saw in the previous school year.
“Because the act of doing so actually made students far less safe than they were even prior to that, because one officer discharged their weapon in the course of that mission.
“And that is but a moment away from a student being killed by the NYPD. And I think it made it very crystal clear to me as to why we tend to oppose these things and why we need to do so no matter what the issue is.”
Mamdani said that mayor Adams, pro-Israel legislators and elected officials mischaracterized the student protests to justify both their defense of Tel Aviv and the assault on the protesters.
“I think it’s a mischaracterization of New Yorker sentiments. I think that a majority … especially of New York Democrats, want to see an end to the genocide, want to see a ceasefire.”
He said many have taken “umbrage at having a mayor who has refused to call for a ceasefire for more than a year, who has justified the killing of children, who has had meetings with billionaires, who have urged him to send in the police.”
Mamdani claimed that Adams had previously visited Israel “with a promise to increase cooperation with settlement leaders there.”
Mamdani said he has been attacked because of his insistence to stand up to one morality and one rule of law, denying that he is “antisemitic” or “anti-Israel.”
He fears that the damage caused by Tel Aviv’s actions, including the expansion of the Jewish-only settler movement, would prevent the two-state solution which is a part of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy on Israel and Palestine.
Mamdani insisted many New York voters who are Jewish defend Palestinian lives. “There is a large and beautiful Jewish population across New York City, and it is also like any other religions, politically diverse.
“And many of the acts of civil disobedience and protests that I’ve been a part of over the last year calling for a ceasefire, calling for an arms embargo, have in fact been led by Jewish New Yorkers.
“Thousands of Jewish New Yorkers. I’m proud to have been endorsed by Jewish Voice for Peace Action as the first-ever municipal candidate that they have endorsed in their history as an organization.”
Mamdani said he could win the election with his policies which include helping residents face the city’s “cost of living crisis.” If elected, he would provide universal and free childcare.
In addition, he would freeze the rent of more than 2 million New Yorkers in rent-stabilized apartments; and eliminate the fare on all city buses and make them faster (currently they are the slowest in the nation).
He would also lower the cost of groceries by piloting city-owned stores; and institute a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to public safety.
In 2020, Mamdani was the first South Asian man and only third Muslim elected to the New York State Assembly representing western Queens, New York.
He is the first Muslim elected official to run for mayor or any citywide office in New York City. He identifies both as a “socialist,” which he defines as serving all citizens justly and legally, and as a member of the Democrat Party.
If he wins the Democratic Party nomination, he will represent the party in the general election in November 2025.
Mamdani bids to replace incumbent Adams who faces multiple charges of bribery and campaign offenses.
Adams is alleged to have committed the offences over a decade while mayor and as the president of the Brooklyn borough.
He was elected New York City mayor in November 2021 having defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Joe Biden cancels another $4.28 billion in US student loans
- Actions are a part of Biden’s effort to fulfill his 2020 campaign pledge to deliver debt relief to millions of Americans
The Biden administration on Friday canceled another $4.28 billion in student debt for nearly 55,000 public service workers, the US Department of Education said in a statement.
Friday’s action brings the total public service student loans forgiven to about $78 billion for nearly 1.1 million workers, the department said.
The White House said separately that this brings the total number of all individuals who have been approved for student debt relief under President Joe Biden to nearly 5 million people.
The actions are a part of Biden’s effort to fulfill his 2020 campaign pledge to deliver debt relief to millions of Americans before he leaves office in January.
US charges ‘Chinese agent’ over political influence
- Yaoning “Mike” Sun arrested near LA on charges he acted as agent for foreign government while getting involved in local politics
- Asked about the charges on Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said it was “not aware of the details in the case you mentioned”
LOS ANGELES, United States: China’s ruling Communist Party used an agent in California to influence state politics, US prosecutors said Thursday as they unveiled criminal charges against a Chinese national.
FBI agents arrested Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 64, at his home in Chino Hills, near Los Angeles, on charges that he acted as an agent for a foreign government while getting involved in local politics.
The complaint claims Sun served as the campaign manager and close confidante for an unnamed politician who was running for local elected office in 2022.
During the campaign, he is alleged to have conspired with Chen Jun — a Chinese national sentenced to prison last month for acting as an illegal agent of Beijing — regarding his efforts to get the politician elected.
The US Department of Justice said Chen discussed with Chinese government officials how they could influence local politicians, particularly on the issue of Taiwan.
China considers the self-ruled island of Taiwan part of its territory.
Beijing — which has said it would never rule out using force to bring Taiwan under its control — has been accused of using local influence campaigns, among other tactics, to sway global opinion on the issue.
Charging documents say after the local politician won office in late 2022, Chen instructed Sun to prepare a report on the election to be sent to Chinese government officials, who expressed their thanks for his work.
“The conduct alleged in this complaint is deeply concerning,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada.
“We cannot permit hostile foreign powers to meddle in the governance of our country.”
Sun was charged with one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
He also faces one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of five years.
Asked about the charges on Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said it was “not aware of the details in the case you mentioned.”
But spokesman Lin Jian said “China never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries.”
“The international community sees clearly who is actually wantonly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” he said during a regular briefing.
