THAILAND, Jan 23 (agencies): Thai authorities dealt a double blow to ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her powerful family Friday, banning her from politics for five years and proceeding with criminal charges for negligence that could put her in jail.
The moves could stoke tension in the politically divided country still living under martial law after the military seized power in May, toppling the remnants of Yingluck's government to end months of street protests.
The ban and the legal case are the latest twist in 10 years of turbulent politics that have pitted Yingluck and her brother Thaksin, himself a former prime minister, against the royalist-military establishment which sees the Shinawatras as a threat and reviles their populist policies.
Yingluck will face criminal charges in the Supreme Court and if found guilty faces up to 10 years in jail, the Attorney General's Office said on Friday.
The charges against the country's first female premier, who was removed from office for abuse of power in May days before the coup, concern her role in a scheme that paid farmers above market prices for rice and cost Thailand billions of dollars.Yingluck vowed to fight the charges.
"Thai democracy has died along with the rule of law," she said in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
An army-appointed legislature impeached her over corruption in a scheme she oversaw to subsidise rice farmers.
The criminal charges, which also relate to the rice scheme, could result in a 10-year jail term.
The military has ruled Thailand since May 2014, when they overthrew Ms Yingluck's government in a coup.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says the impeachment sends a strong signal that there will be no compromise and her family will be removed from politics.
Ms Yingluck and her brother, tycoon and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, remain hugely popular among Thailand's rural poor, but are hated by an urban and middle-class elite who accuse them of corruption and abuse of power.
Their party is the most popular in Thailand and has - under various different names - won every election since 2001.
Shortly after her impeachment, Ms Yingluck was due to hold a news conference at a Bangkok hotel. But troops arrived and prevented her from speaking.
Thailand is still under martial law and unauthorised political meetings are banned.
