BANGKOK, March 4, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Thailand's Supreme Court on Monday cleared

former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of corruption in awarding a
government contract during her time in office.

Yingluck, who ruled from 2011 until she was ousted in a 2014 military coup,
was charged with malfeasance in a 2013 project worth over $6.7 million (240
million Baht).

The ruling is the latest legal success for the powerful Shinawatra family
after Yingluck's brother Thaksin -- a two-time premier also ousted in a coup
-- was freed on parole in February, six months into what was originally an
eight-year prison sentence.

Yingluck and five others were accused of not running a proper bidding process
to run the "Roadshow to Build the Future of Thailand", a campaign to promote
her government's infrastructure projects.

Nine judges sitting in the kingdom's top court ruled unanimously in favour of
the former premier, saying they "found no intention" to benefit the two major
media outlets which won the contract, according to a statement.

"The project was done according to the regulations," the court statement
said.

Yingluck, who has lived in self-imposed exile since 2017 to avoid a
conviction in another case, was not present at the court but was represented
by her lawyer.

"We received the mercy from the court to dismiss the case," fellow defendant
Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, a former deputy PM, told reporters outside of
court.

"We are not corrupt," he added.

Yingluck was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison in a graft case
related to a rice-pledging scheme for farmers in 2011.

She still faces six more cases over alleged graft during her premiership.