The Central Administrative Court has dismissed a petition from former premier Yingluck Shinawatra calling for an injunction to suspend an administrative order forcing her to pay 35 billion baht compensation for losses incurred by her government's rice-pledging scheme.
Yingluck has already been found guilty of dereliction of duty over her failure to halt the loss-ridden flagship policy.
Prior to her conviction the government pursued an administrative order seeking 35 billion baht in compensation from her for the damages the rice programme caused, or 20% of the total evaluated damage.
In January last year, Yingluck petitioned the court requesting an injunction against the order. But the court later threw the petition out, saying the order at the time had yet to be enforced.
She lodged the petition again last July, claiming the government had frozen her bank accounts.
The court ruled against the injunction again yesterday.
Yingluck's claim the order was illegitimate on the grounds it was forcing her to pay too much compensation had no bearing as it was up to the court to determine that, the ruling said.
It also rejected her claim that the seizure of some of her assets had already caused her a lot of trouble, saying the Finance Ministry has the ability to compensate her later if a court eventually rules for the order to be revoked.
The court said the Legal Execution Department (LED) had frozen Yingluck's 16 bank accounts totalling 1.96 million baht, a 92% drop from the 24.9 million baht in the same accounts declared to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) one year after she left office.
Since Yingluck failed to explain the dramatic drop in the amount of money in her accounts when asked by the court, this demonstrated the former premier's intention to move the money out of her accounts, the court said.
Five of the seven judges voted against Yingluck's injunction petition.
The other two believed an injunction should be issued until the court rules on the compensation case.
Yingluck's lawyer, Noppadol Laothong, said his team would monitor how the administrative order was being enforced by the LED, which was assigned under a Section 44 directive to deal with the matter.
If enforcement crosses any line stipulated under the laws, a new petition will be lodged, he noted. Currently, Ms Yingluck's assets are only frozen. They have not yet been auctioned off, the lawyer said.
LED director-general Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol said the Finance Ministry was responsible for locating Yingluck's assets and requesting their seizure. The LED is awaiting such a request from the ministry.
Yingluck fled Thailand last August to escape punishment over her administration's failed rice-pledging scheme, just as the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was set to deliver its ruling.
She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
Speculation is rife that Yingluck has applied for asylum in Britain. She has seldom been seen in public since.
