PUBLISHED: 8 Jan 2025 at 05: 41
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra will not be able to be detained outside of captivity if she comes back to the country because she has not yet met the new requirements for the soon-to-be-adopt alternative prison detention program, according to Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong on Tuesday.
Yingluck received a five-year prison sentence in August 2017, but only those who have served time in jail for more than four years may be eligible for the new confinement program, according to Pol Col Tawee, who refutes a past claim made by DoC director-general Sahakarn Phetnarin.
Yingluck, 57, was given a five-year prison sentence in absentia in 2017 after being found criminal by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Case Division for Holders of Political Positions for failing to stop fraud in her administration’s rice-pledging system, which cost the state about 500 billion ringgit in costs.
Since then, she has resided worldwide.
Nonetheless, the minister declined to comment when asked if Yingluck may be entitled should her sentence be voided as a result of a plea.
The minister cited the need for Thailand to adhere to international corrections guidelines as justification for pursuing the plan, noting that 50 of the country’s prisons are currently in really poor condition and that the majority of them are on average 90 years old.
Due to limited finances, just one innovative prison may be built each month, leaving the recent facilities overcrowded, he said.
” Many other countries have adopted similar programs”, he said.
According to a recent study conducted in Thailand, captives who have been permitted to remain detained outside of jail have a significantly lower level of incarceration than those who have received their whole sentences, he said.
The minister strongly refuted growing rumors that this incarceration solution was created specifically to help Yingluck’s returning to Thailand, saying that” the new choice wasn’t tailor-made for any particular person but for all who are eligible for it.”
There are some issues that need to be resolved before the new confinement program may be unveiled, according to the minister, even though it appears to have received the majority of public hearings.