Yingluck and her Phue Thai Party say the trial is politically motivated and aimed at discrediting her flagship policy, which helped the Shinawatra clan win every election since 2001, but was a disaster for state coffers and distorted global rice prices. The struggle for power between a conservative establishment and the populist movement founded by Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, has been at the root of more than a decade of political turmoil in Southeast Asia's second biggest economy. Thaksin was overthrown as prime minister in 2006 and now lives abroad to avoid corruption charges.