The rice-pledging case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been closed after neither Yingluck nor the Office of the Attorney General had filed an appeal by the Oct 27 deadline, Isra News Agency reported on its website <www.isranews.org>, quoting an OAG source.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Sept 27 sentenced Yingluck to five years imprisonment without suspension after finding her guilty of neglect of duty for failing to take action to stem damages from the rice-pledging scheme carried out by her government.
Yingluck has fled the country and is now residing abroad. Her exact whereabouts are not clear.
The source told Isra News Agency that the OAG contacted the Supreme Court on Oct 27 and was informed that Yingluck had not sent her legal representatives to file an appeal or to seek an extension of the appeal period. The OAG, as the plaintiff in the case, said it has no intention of filing an appeal.
Since neither side filed an appeal, said the source, the case has been closed.
The next step is for the OAG to send a letter to officially inform the Foreign Ministry of the closure of the case so that it can continue with the process to revoke Yingluck's passport.
It is believed the ministry will send the letter to the Foreign Ministry shortly, said the source.
Norawich Lalaeng, Ms Yingluck's lawyer, confirmed this matter. He added that since the court postponed the reading of the verdict from Aug 25 to Sept 27, he has not been contacted by his client. This explains why he had not filed an appeal nor sought to extend the appeal period.
Surasak Treerattrakul, deputy chief of the panel of prosecutors handling the rice-pledging and the fake government-to-government rice sales cases, said the rice-pledging case is now over because no appeals had been filed by the deadline.
He said Khemchai Chutiwong, the attorney general, decided on Oct 27 that since the Supreme Court's ruling had addressed all points raised in the lawsuit, there is no reason to appeal.
Authorities concerned can now press ahead in the execution of the verdict, and seek Yingluck in order to deliver the punishment. The statute of limitations in the case has expired, Mr Surasak said.
On the revocation of Ms Yingluck's passport, Mr Surasak said it is a matter to be handled by the Foreign Ministry.
As for the G-to-G rice sales case, the prosecutors are waiting to see the basis of the defendants' appeal before considering whether to themselves appeal against the ruling of the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions. The defendants had asked for an extension of the appeal period twice, he added.
Kittinan Thachpramuk, chief of the panel of prosecutors handling the two rice cases, said he will call a meeting of the panel in early November to consider whether to appeal against the ruling and on which points.
He believed the panel would reach a conclusion by the end of November.
On the part of the defendants, he said former deputy commerce minister Poom Sarapol and former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, the 1st and 2nd defendants, had already filed their appeals with the Supreme Court.
Mr Kittinan said his panel had obtained copies of the appeals of the two defendants for study and is preparing to counter the defence.
If the panel was not able to finish doing so by the end of November, it would seek another extension of the appeal period, he added.
