FROM BEING a successful business woman and the first female prime minister of Thailand to facing criminal lawsuits and having her assets frozen, it can be said Yingluck Shinawatra’s life has been quite a rollercoaster ride for the past three years.

She was among those at the top of the junta’s watch list. Immediately after the coup was successfully staged in 2014, Yingluck, a former premier and the sister and political heiress of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shina-watra, was summoned to report to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

Like most high-profile political figures, she is prohibited from making any political moves and must seek permission if she wishes to travel abroad.

Perhaps the worst of her woes after the former prime minister lost power is having to defend herself in legal cases mounted against her, starting during the late days of her administration when large-scale street demonstrations called for her downfall.

First on the list is the rice-pledging case, in which the ex-PM is accused of negligence and malfeasance for allegedly failing to prevent corruption in implementing the scheme that subsequently incurred huge financial losses. Since 2015, when the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders accepted the case, Yingluck has attended without fail at least 26 court hearings.

If convicted, she could serve up to 10 years in jail in addition to paying compensation to the state of more than Bt35 billion. In the meantime, some of her assets, particularly saving accounts, were frozen prior to her August 1 closing statement and the delivery of her final verdict tomorrow.

Feeling distress under great pressure, the former premier of Thailand was moved to tears on a couple of occasions while being watched by millions of people across the country.

While making merit at a Bangkok temple on her 50th birthday in June, Yingluck burst into tears during an interview and said she “hoped to be able to make merit again next year”.

Yet, despite all the inconvenience and hardship Yingluck has suffered over the past several years, she has been allowed to largely maintain her lifestyle, so long as it did not go against the NCPO’s orders, and in particular the ban on political activities.

Two months after the coup, she managed to get permission from the ruling junta to travel with her son Supasek Amornchat to Europe, where they joined the celebration of her billionaire brother Thaksin’s 65th birthday in France. She was also allowed to travel with her son for the second time that year to Japan and China in October and November.

Once the rice-pledging case was in the courts, Yingluck’s travel was restricted to the Kingdom. She was not allowed to accept a 2015 invitation from the European Parliament to exchange views on the political situation in Thailand. The NCPO may have lifted the international travel ban, but it remained part of the terms she had to commit to after the Supreme Court agreed to release her on Bt30 million bail.

There was not much she could do, given all the restrictions. Yingluck resorted to using social media every now and again to communicate with supporters. Sometimes the platform was used to send low-key political messages and announcements, not only to her six million followers, but also to the powers that be. On other occasions, she has shared her activities and lifestyle on social media.

Unable to participate openly in national affairs, the former PM found an avocation as an amateur vegetable grower. She at least twice opened her house for guests and served them salad straight from her organic vegetable garden. Once was a briefing session last year with international media regarding the rice case. Another was two months ago when she celebrated achieving six million Facebook followers, making her the most popular Thai politician on the Internet.

When she is free from tending the vegetable garden, Yingluck has taken time to tour the country. She is often seen travelling with her teenage son, and sometimes with unwanted officers who she wasn’t aware of initially, making merit at Buddhist temples, doing charity work, and meeting with supporters throughout Thailand.

During last year’s rice crisis, when the price per kilogram hit lower than the price of a pack of instant noodles, Yingluck did not tell farmers to go grow something else or go sell their yields on Mars. She instead jumped in, bought rice from poor farmers, and helped sell it in a Bangkok mall. The 10 tonnes of rice Yingluck purchased was sold out in about an hour.

Yingluck may have been able to lead an almost normal life without having been detained or summoned for an “attitude adjustment” as experienced by other politicians and activists. But she is not off the roller coaster yet. And one of the steepest hills she’ll climb on this ride is the final verdict on the rice-pledging issue to be delivered tomorrow.