If she is eventually found guilty, she could face up to to 10 years in jail.
Both the impeachment and corruption charges revolve around her administration’s controversial rice subsidy programme, which funnelled cash to her rural voter base but cost hundreds of billions of baht and inspired protests that ultimately felled her government.
“The prospect of a jail term would be much more threatening and damaging to her than impeachment,” Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai academic at Kyoto University, told AFP.
The rice subsidy scheme, which purchased the crop from farmers at around twice the market rate, was hugely popular among those who voted for the Shinawatra political machine, but economically disastrous, leaving Thailand with huge unsold stockpiles as regional competitors undercut Thai rice prices.
Prosecutors had spent months deciding whether Yingluck should face separate criminal corruption charges over her subsidy scheme.
“We agree that the case substantiates a criminal indictment charge against Yingluck,” Surasak Threerattrakul, Director-General of the Office of the Attorney General, said today, adding that an indictment is expected in early March.