Thai ex-prime minister vows to fight negligence charge

BANGKOK — Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose bank accounts were frozen this week, says she will fight to prove her innocence, as a trial that could put her in prison for 10 years enters its final stages.

Yingluck was ousted as prime minister in 2014 when a court ruled that nepotism was involved in a personnel transfer. The action against her, widely considered politically motivated, came shortly before the army ousted her government in a coup.

A court on Aug. 25 is to issue a verdict on whether she was criminally negligent as prime minister in implementing a rice subsidy policy which allegedly caused the government billions of dollars in losses. An administrative ruling holding her responsible for about $1 billion of the losses led to her accounts being frozen.