Thailand's attorney general brought criminal charges Thursday against former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for negligence related to her government's money-losing rice subsidy scheme in a move that could see her jailed for up to a decade, media reports say.
The rice-buying scheme had cost the country around $4.46bn in losses since it was introduced in 2011.
Under the scheme, farmers were paid about 50 percent above what they would get on the world market.
Thursday's accusations came one month after the ex-PM was impeached on similar grounds by the military-appointed legislature, effectively banning her from politics for five years.