By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT is scheduled to deliver a ruling on an impeachment lawsuit earlier filed against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin by the middle of next month.
The Constitutional Court today (July 24) announced that the court ruling will be delivered on Aug. 14 to judge whether the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister may be found guilty as earlier charged by 40 former senators on alleged grounds of severely violating the constitution and code of political ethics by naming former lawyer Pichit Chuenban a minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office despite his known critical stigma.
If finally found guilty by court, Srettha could possibly be impeached by law to the extent that he be immediately deprived of his prime-ministerial status.
The former senior lawmakers had concluded that the prime minister could have learned of the fact that Pichit, who had previously worked for de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra over a Bangkok land grab case, had evidently perpetrated contempt of court by passing two million baht literally contained in food bags to officials of the Supreme Court and consequently had been sentenced to six months in jail in 2008.
Srettha had earlier contended that he had consulted the Council of State over legal matters pertaining to the contentious naming of the notorious Pichit as the portfolioless minister.
Though Pichit had resigned from the cabinet seat under pressure, the plaintiffs considered the allegedly unbecoming act on the part of the prime minister as an irreversible fait accompli for which he should be subject to the impeachment lawsuit.
The billionaire, powerful Thaksin has been categorically accused by critics of having pushed for the contentious naming of his former lawyer as minister among those in a Pheu Thai-led cabinet lineup earlier this year.
Srettha, quietly pushed to power by Thaksin’s sister/fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, had been virtually viewed as a puppet pulled around by the de facto Pheu Thai boss whilst the prime minister had publicly denied it.
CAPTION:
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin with the Constitutional Court logo next to him, above, and a file photo of him, Front Page. Both images: Thai Rath
Also read: Phumtham downplays PM’s legal battle over ministerial naming debacle
Thammanat shrugs off strained ties between Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharath
Politically associated Mongkol voted Senate speaker
Marijuana U-turn raises question who is the real PM: Thepthai
Second Chinese-language billboard ad put up in Prachinburi
