Thailand’s ousted ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is to stand trial over a rice subsidy scheme that cost the government billions of euros. <br /><br /> She faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.<br /><br /> The Supreme Court said the criminal case for negligence would start on May 19.<br /><br /> The ruling is the latest legal move against the one-time politically dominant Shinawatra family – Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, is also an ousted former premier. <br /><br /> The Constitutional Court ordered Yingluck to step down last May, with the army then seizing power, saying it had to end violent street protests.<br /><br /> She was banned from politics for five years in January, convicted of corruption related to the rice subsidy.<br /><br /> Yingluck denies wrongdoing and has defended buying rice from farmers at above-market prices, saying the charges against her are politically motivated.<br /><br /> Critics however denounced the rice scheme as a populist giveaway to the Shinawatras’ rural support base.
