By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT is expected on upcoming Thursday to either accept or waive a senatorial petition for the judicial body to consider impeaching Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Prime Minister’s Office Minister Pichit Chuenban, an official said today (May 18).
If the surprise petition recently filed by 40 senators is eventually accepted by the Constitutional Court on Thursday, the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister and the Prime Minister’s Office minister will be practically suspended by court order from performing their government duties, pending a court ruling on the alleged violation of the constitution and Code of Political Ethics perpetrated by Srettha who had named Pichit as minister and by Pichit who had earlier committed a contempt of the court, according to the official who only spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pichit contended that he had been put behind bars for the court contempt charge at the order of the court but not by a court verdict.
The newly-named minister argued that a court order is literally different from a court verdict to the extent that the former may by no means prohibit a convict from assuming a ministerial seat or a political position at a later date whilst the latter may do otherwise.
Nevertheless, the 40 senators have lodged the impeachment bid in pursuit of an end to rule by Srettha who had named Pichit among others as a minister in Apr. 30’s cabinet lineup.
The prime minister contended that he had consulted with the Council of State over the naming of Pichit and finally found it as compliant with the law and shrugged off the senators’ impeachment move against him.
The naming of Pichit who had earlier acted as lawyer on behalf of deposed prime minister/de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra as well as deposed prime minister/Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra had been viewed by the petitioners as “severely, ethically inappropriate” on the part of the prime minister, given 2008’s phenomenon in which the newly-named minister had evidently tried to hand out two million baht in payoff cash literally put in food bags to administrative officials of the Supreme Court whilst defending the de facto Pheu Thai boss over a Ratchada land grab lawsuit.
Pichit’s attempted bribery which had been ruled by court as being tantamount to a contempt of the court, landing him a six-month jail sentence had been yet considered by the senior lawmakers as ‘”evidently prone to corruption”, thus rendering him undeserving of the ministerial seat.
Thaksin had allegedly looked to manipulate the naming of Pichit as a minister to return him favours since last year’s setup of a post-election, Pheu Thai-led cabinet under the real estate tycoon-turned-prime minister who had been quietly endorsed by Yingluck.
As part of a “secret deal” made between the de facto Pheu Thai boss and unnamed elements of the powers that be, Srettha won an overwhelming yea vote for prime minister from most of the senators appointed by a coup junta under leadership of army chief-turned-prime minister/de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss/privy councillor Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Attorney-General is scheduled for May 29 to decide whether to proceed with the prosecution against Thaksin in a lese majeste lawsuit also known as the draconian Section 112 of the Criminal Code or to drop it.
Thaksin had reportedly mentioned the monarchy whilst talking about the 2014 coup orchestrated by Prayut to oust Yingluck during an interview with a news agency in Seoul one year later.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Insert: Prime Minister’s Office Minister Pichit Chuenban. All photos: Thai Rath
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