Thailand’s military government has banned former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from politics and proceeded with criminal charges that could lead to her serving 10 years in jail – a major double blow to the powerful Shinawatra clan that experts have warned may plunge the nation into violent upheaval.
The decision – made on Friday by a handpicked legislature – makes Yingluck the first premier in Thailand’s history to be impeached and relates to a hugely popular but deeply troubled government scheme to pay rice farmers double the market price for their crop, a policy believed to have incurred losses of around £10bn.
The ban prevents Yingluck from participating in politics for five years, a move analysts say is nothing more than an attempt to keep her – and her brother Thaksin, the former prime minister who was himself ousted in a military coup in 2006 – away from polls that have won them, or their affiliates, every election in the past decade.