Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was today sentenced in absentia to two years in prison, without suspension, after he was found guilty, by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office, of malfeasance over his government’s issuance of two and three digit lottery tickets from August 2003 to September 2006.

The court ruled that Thaksin ignored warnings that the issuance of the tickets might be illegal because there was no law to support the move and he ordered then deputy finance minister and director of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) to go ahead with the project which, according to the court, resulted in about a 1.6 billion baht operating loss by the GLO.

Full story: thaipbsworld.com

By Thai PBS World