Fugitive Former Thai PM Yingluck Gets Five Years’ Jail in Absentia

Fugitive Former Thai PM Yingluck Gets Five Years’ Jail in Absentia
Ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra greets supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court in Bangkok, Thailand on August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
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BANGKOK—Thailand’s Supreme Court convicted and sentenced former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia to five years in prison on Wednesday for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of dollars.

Yingluck fled abroad last month fearing that the military government, set up after a coup in 2014, would seek a harsh sentence.