DHAKA: Thailand's attorney-general has filed criminal charges against former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra over a controversial rice subsidy scheme.

If found guilty on the charge of negligence, she could be jailed for up to 10 years, reports the BBC.

The anti-corruption agency has also called for her to be personally liable for losses to state coffers.

Yingluck was removed by a court in May 2014, shortly before the military ousted her elected government.

She was later impeached over the rice subsidy scheme and banned from politics for five years. Thailand, meanwhile, remains under martial law in the wake of the coup.

Yingluck was not at Bangkok's Supreme Court to hear the indictment.

BDST: 1410 HRS, FEB 19, 2015