Ousted Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra slams impeachment proceedings
Thailand's first female premier defiant during her appearance, insisting she cannot be impeached under a constitution that no longer exists because of the military coup
Ousted Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday attacked impeachment proceedings against her ahead of a crunch vote that could see her banned from politics for five years and deepen the country’s bitter divide.
Yingluck, the kingdom’s first female premier and the sister of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled from office by a controversial court ruling shortly before the army staged a coup in May.
I am not corrupt, I was never careless
She faces impeachment on Friday by the junta-picked National Legislative Assembly over her administration’s populist rice subsidy programme, which funnelled cash to her rural base but cost billions of dollars and inspired protests that felled her government.
Yingluck arrived at the heavily-policed Parliament House in central Bangkok accompanied by a handful of her party members.
“There is no position to remove me from as the Constitutional Court has already removed me as prime minister,” she told assembly members, also saying she should not be impeached for violating a constitution that no longer exists under junta rule.