The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) wants to bring another case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions, after deciding she abused her power by unfairly ordering the transfer of Thawil Pliansri, then secretary-general of the National Security Council, to an inactive post in 2011.
NACC deputy secretary-general Niwatchai Kasemmongkol said on Wednesday an investigation found that on Sept 4, 2011 Ms Yingluck ordered the Prime Minister's Secretariat, over the telephone, to propose that Mr Thawil be transferred to the position of prime minister's adviser at the PM's Office.
The secretariat subsequently sent a memorandum to Krisna Seehalak, then permanent secretary of the PM's Office, and Pol Gen Kowit Wattana, who was then a deputy prime minister, asking them to approve the proposal and forward it to the cabinet.
The proposal was initially not on the meeting agenda, but was hastily tabled for the cabinet's consideration. The cabinet approved it.
Ms Yingluck then issued an order moving Mr Thawil from the job of chief of the NSC to the PM's Office. The transfer was processed in haste and completed in only four days, Mr Niwatchai said.
On Oct 4, 2011, the cabinet appointed Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree, then police chief, to the position of head of the National Security Council.
After that Ms Yingluck, as chair of the Police Commission, made a proposal that Pol Gen Priewphan Damapong, then deputy police chief and her close relative, be appointed national police chief, filling the vacancy left by Pol Gen Wichean. Her proposal was approved by the Police Commission.
According to Mr Niwatchai, the NACC found that Ms Yingluck had committed malfeasance, a violation of Section 157 of the Criminal Code, and abuse of power under the Anti-Corruption Act.
He said the NACC would send the investigation report, related documents and evidence, and its recommendation to the Office of the Attorney General. It would ask that Ms Yingluck be indicted for malfeasance and abuse of power in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions.
Ms Yingluck, the younger sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, fled the country in August 2017, shortly before her conviction and sentencing by the Supreme Court for dereliction of duty in ignoring warnings of massive corruption in her former government's rice subsidy scheme. She has since been seen many times in her also-exiled brother's company, and was reported to have been granted Serbian citizenship in 2019.