Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom has slammed an order by the military regime that gives officials investigating the rice-pledging scheme immunity from future lawsuits.
Mr Boonsong on Sunday took to his Facebook page to attack the order, saying former prime minister Yingluck Shinawtra and others facing lawsuits over the scheme were "political victims" who had done nothing wrong.
He added that the rice case was being used as a tool to destroy Ms Yingluck and the Pheu Thai Party.
Mr Boonsong said the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) had issued the order to protect itself and others handling the case from future lawsuits because it knew the rice case was unjust and unfair, and they knew it.
- COMMENTARY: Section 44 addiction
According to the NCPO order published in the Royal Gazette on Saturday, anyone appointed or assigned from May 22 last year by the prime minister, ministers, the cabinet or the Rice Policy and Management Committee to investigate the 2005-2014 scheme will be immune from prosecution.
Those protected include individuals, groups of people, working teams, committees, state agencies and officials.
The NCPO, which invoked Section 44 for the scheme for the first time, said it took this step to ensure no more damages would arise.
Ms Yingluck has been charged with dereliction of duty while she was prime minister by failing to stop losses and corruption in her government's rice-pledging scheme. The case is now with the Supreme Court.
Mr Boonsong and 20 other individuals and companies also face a Supreme Court trial in connection with fake government-to-government (G-to-G) rice deals with two Chinese trading companies: Guangdong Stationery and Sporting Goods Import and Export, and Hainan Grain and Oil Industrial Trading Co.
Neither company was authorised by Beijing to undertake the G-to-G rice deals, according to the National Anti-Corruption Commission probe.
The government is also demanding financial compensation for the losses from the suspects in the multi-billion-baht rice-pledging scandal.
Mr Boonsong claimed Ms Yingluck was not directly responsible for the rice-pledging scheme because a subcommittee set up by her government had responsibility for direct oversight of the scheme, while another subcommittee was set up to handle the release of rice stocks.
The former prime minister should not be dragged into the case as she only had general oversight of the rice policy, Mr Boonsong said.
He added he had done nothing wrong, as he had followed the same protocol as previous administrations for handling G-to-G agreements.
The Foreign Trade Department found the two Chinese firms were state enterprises with the Chinese government holding 100% shares in them, Mr Boonsong said.
However, Warong Dechgitvigrom, a former Democrat MP, and a whistleblower on corruption in the rice-pledging scheme, welcomed the NCPO order, praising the government Sunday for sending a signal that it was determined to punish any wrongdoers involved in the rice scheme.
Also on Sunday, government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the trials of the suspects would be based on evidence, and the defendants were entitled to prove their innocence in court.
- See also: 'Red day' ignored
He was referring to a nationwide campaign on social media for red-shirt followers to wear red shirts to show support for Ms Yingluck.
"The government is confident the public can distinguish between the truth and what is fabricated to cause confusion," Maj Gen Sansern said.
Early Sunday, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra posted on Instagram a photo of himself in a red shirt, saying he wanted to see the return of justice and democracy to the country.
He said he was wearing the shirt to show support for all justice and democracy-loving people.
"In fact, it is easy for anyone to win the hearts of the red shirts. They don't need to use a gun or a law. Just be kind and you can win the hearts of the red-shirts, to save money and time," he said in his post.
Despite the social media campaign, there were no reports of people wearing red shirts en masse.
In Khon Kaen, a traditional stronghold of the red shirts, there were no reported unusual movements of people at key spots such as City Hall, the provincial court, the city pillar or the democracy monument.
Pol Col Supakorn Khamsingnok, deputy chief of Khon Kaen police, said local police met red-shirt leaders in the province, who decided not to come out in a show of force.