August 14, (THEWILL) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court has sacked Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office.
In a case brought by a group of former senators appointed by Thailand’s former junta, the judges ruled 5-4 that Srettha breached regulations by appointing a lawyer with a criminal conviction to his cabinet.
“The court rules by a majority of five to four that the ministerial position of the prime minister is terminated under the constitution because he has not shown honesty in appointing this minister”, Judge Punya Udchachon said in reading the court’s judgement.
Punya said that Srettha must have known about lawyer Pichit Chuenban’s 2008 conviction when he appointed him to the cabinet.
“The appointment of the second respondent (Pichit) shows the first respondent (Srettha) has no honesty and breached ethical standards”, Punya added.
The court ruling dismissed Srettha and his whole cabinet, and parliament now must meet to choose a new prime minister.
The case against Srettha centred around the appointment of Pichit, a lawyer associated with the family of former billionaire prime minister, Thaksin — former Manchester City owner and longtime bete noire of the kingdom’s conservative pro-royalist, pro-military elite.
Pichit, sentenced to six months’ jail in 2008 for a graft-related offence, quit the cabinet in a bid to save Srettha, but the court pressed ahead with a case initiated by a complaint by senators appointed by Thailand’s former junta.
The ruling comes a week after the same court dissolved the main opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) and banned its former leader from politics for 10 years.
Srettha leaves office after less than a year on the job. He is the third prime minister from the Pheu Thai party to be kicked out by the Constitutional Court.
