Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be charged with neglect of duty over a rice farm subsidy scheme and could be removed from office if found guilty, AFP reports according to the anti-graft panel.
Yingluck had ignored warnings that the flagship rice policy was fostering corruption and causing financial losses, the National Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement.
She will be summoned to hear the charges on February 27.
The scheme, which guarantees farmers above-market rates for rice, has become a lightning rod for anger among anti-government protesters. They say it has encouraged corruption, drained the public coffers and left the country with a mountain of unsold stock.
News of the charges came just hours after violent clashes broke out between riot police and anti-government demonstrators in the capital Bangkok that left at least two people dead, including a policeman, and dozens wounded.
Yingluck's opponents say she is a puppet for her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon-turned-premier who was ousted by the military in a coup in 2006 and later fled overseas to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.
Thaksin's critics accuse his family of using taxpayers' money to buy the support of rural voters through populist policies.
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be charged with neglect of duty over a rice farm subsidy scheme and could be removed from office if found guilty, AFP reports according to the anti-graft panel.
Yingluck had ignored warnings that the flagship rice policy was fostering corruption and causing financial losses, the National Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement.
She will be summoned to hear the charges on February 27.
The scheme, which guarantees farmers above-market rates for rice, has become a lightning rod for anger among anti-government protesters. They say it has encouraged corruption, drained the public coffers and left the country with a mountain of unsold stock.
News of the charges came just hours after violent clashes broke out between riot police and anti-government demonstrators in the capital Bangkok that left at least two people dead, including a policeman, and dozens wounded.
Yingluck's opponents say she is a puppet for her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon-turned-premier who was ousted by the military in a coup in 2006 and later fled overseas to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.
Thaksin's critics accuse his family of using taxpayers' money to buy the support of rural voters through populist policies.
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