Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister of Thailand, Thursday, denied charges of corruption in a rice purchase scheme levied against her by the anti-corruption board.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) charged Shinawatra with corruption. If convicted she could be ousted from the prime ministerial post.
"I reaffirm that I am innocent of the accusations by the NACC (the anti-corruption commission)," Shinawatra said on her official Facebook page. "Even though I am accused of criminal charges and face removal [from office], which were the wishes of people who want to overthrow the government, I am willing to co-operate to establish the facts," she added.
According to the NACC, Shinawatra did not pay any heed to the warnings that the rice scheme was promoting corruption and causing financial losses. She has been summoned to hear the charges on Feb. 27, reports the Agence France-Presse.
Under the rice purchase scheme, the Thai government was allegedly buying farmers' crops for the past two years at prices up to 50 percent higher than world prices, reports the BBC. This was supposed to benefit the rice farmers, the main supporters of the present regime. But recently the rice farmers were also protesting as they claim to have not been paid unde the scheme.
The 43-year-old prime minister also requested the commission not to rush to deliver a ruling which would benefit people trying to evict the present government on trumped up charges.
Suriyasai Katasila, a member of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), said Shinawatra's message showed that she was not giving up the fight and was alleging the anti-graft agency was being unfair and hurriedly concluding the case against her. ''Her message clearly shows that she is targeting the agency,'' the coordinator of the Green Politics group told FM101 news programme, reports the Bangkok Post. ''Ms Yingluck should be aware that the NACC's decision was unanimous,'' he said.
