Thailand's Supreme Court has issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck Shinawatra, the country's first female prime minister. The court did not look fondly upon her
absence from the verdict hearing. Her lawyer had claimed that she was ill but was unable to produce a doctor's certificate excusing the accused. Thai immigration officials have now stated that Shinawatra has fled the country, although that is hardly surprising given her family's history of self-imposed exile.
Elected in 2011 Yingluck had promised unity for the army and for Bangkok's elite, the two groups that had ousted her brother Thaksin from power in 2006. However, she then launched a
rice subsidy scheme that proved to be a huge mistake. The government bought vast quantities of rice from farmers at above-market prices, helping to prop up the Shinawatra's most loyal supporters, and spurring rampant corruption. The oversupply of rice cut into Thailand's exports, led to protests, and eventually to a coup by the generals.
Depending on who you ask in Thailand, the Shinawatra name will either be revered or despised. Their party Pheu Thai has won every election this century in Thailand largely on the back of support from the rural and working poor. From 2001-2006 Yingluck's polarising brother Thaksin ruled in a manner that deeply unsettled Bangkok's wealthy elite and the generals. A military coup against him (also on allegations of corruption) prompted an escape to Dubai, where he has been ever since.
In South Korea this week a court sentenced Samsung vice-chairman Jae Y Lee to five years in jail for
bribery, embezzlement and perjury. The conviction is a new milestone in the country's far-reaching corruption inquiry. The same inquiry also led to the impeachment of South Korea's former president, Park Geun-hye. Lee is guilty, pending an appeal, of having facilitated bribes to Park's spiritual advisor and friend Choi Soon-sil. The cash-for-access scandal is just one exposé of the sprawling and intertwined relationships between the chaebol (Korea's elite family-run corporations) and government.
Lee's defence painted a picture of Samsung's leader as a person who was disconnected from day-to-day operations, legal or illegal. However the state prosecutors were able to convince the court that Lee had
intimate knowledge of the bribes. Lee represents the third generation of stewards for the conglomerate which generated $180B in revenue in 2016, almost 13% of South Korea's entire GDP. It's also a business with a long history of graft and bribery accusations. There will no doubt be more to come on this as the business titan fights back.
And finally, two groundbreaking judicial decisions have been passed in India this week. In an electrifying unanimous decision, the country's nine Supreme Court justices ruled that Indians have
a fundamental right to privacy. It marks the first time that protections for personal privacy have been specifically enshrined in Indian law as the constitution is devoid of any reference to it.
The case arose as a challenge to the government's controversial Aadhaar biometric identification program which has already
logged the details of 1 billion citizens. The 12-digit ID code is linked to an individual's biometric details (fingerprints and iris scans) and is intended for use in banking and tax affairs. However the court found that tying Aadhaar to welfare payments was a bridge too far. Aadhaar, meaning foundation in Hindi, is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to modernise the tax system.
Earlier in the week India's Supreme Court nullified an arcane practice that had allowed Muslim men to instantly divorce their wives. The multi-faith panel of judges spent months exploring the legality of a Sunni tradition that allows men to leave their wives by simply
uttering the Arabic word for divorce, 'talaq', three times. Known as the "triple talaq", the process greatly disadvantaged muslim women. It's a big win for women's rights groups who had argued that the burden placed on women during and after divorce made this easy exit unconstitutional.
