The witnesses for the defendants include five unnamed Chinese businessmen and officials based in China and Singapore, who will testify in the case from their country of residence. It is the first time that the Supreme Court on criminal offences of political office holders has granted permission to hear witnesses via video teleconferencing.

Former commerce minister Boonsong welcomed the move and said it will prove the status of Guangdong Stationary and Sporting Goods Import and Export, and Hainan Grain and Oil Industrial Trading. He said that he had not asked the court to allow senior executives of these two firms to testify. The two Chinese companies were involved in the allegedly fake G-to-G rice deals.

Earlier, another state witness in a related rice-pledging case involving former premier Yingluck Shinawatra, testified that the previous government had committed to sell 14 million tonnes under G-to-G deals, but there were valid contracts for only 1 million tonnes.

These rice-sale contracts were supposed to be a crucial part of the previous government’s rice-subsidy scheme for which nearly Bt1 trillion of taxpayers’ money was used to buy rice at a price much higher than the prevailing market price, resulting in an estimated loss of Bt500 billion.

Besides Boonsong, a former deputy commerce minister, and other state officials, as well as executives of seven private firms were also charged in the fake G-to-G rice deal case for collusion in government procurement contracts and other criminal offences.

Among the private firms involved in this case are Kij Tawee Yasothorn Rice Mill, Kij Tawee Yasothorn Rice Co Ltd, KMC Inter Rice (2002) Co, and Jia Meng Co whose executives were allegedly aiding state officials to violate the laws.

Meanwhile, the court approved the public prosecutor’s request to include more witnesses and evidence in this case, including Duangporn Rodpayad, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, who will testify on details of G-to-G deals and an official of state-owned Krungthai Bank, who will testify on financial details of these transactions.

The next hearings are scheduled for Jan 18, Jan 25, and Feb 1 and Feb 15, 2016.Private company executives suspected of involvement in this case have been released temporarily on bail of Bt5 million each.