Court may suspend PM pending ethics ruling

Court may suspend PM pending ethics ruling
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin

If a group of senators file a complaint accusing Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of breaking the law by appointing a PM’s company minister, the Constitutional Court may impose a suspension of duty.

On Thursday, the judge is scheduled to meet to determine whether or not to take the petition.

40 senators requested on Friday that the court make a decision regarding the status of PM’s Office Minister Pichit Chuenban and Mr. Srettha following their appointment in a new cabinet reshuffle.

The petition, submitted via Senate speaker Pornpetch Wichit­cholchai, asks the court if Mr Srettha and Pichit should be terminated from their positions under Section 170 ( 4 ) and ( 5 ) of the charter, which deals with the ethics of cabinet ministers.

According to a supply at the court, judges often meet on Wednesday, but the future Wednesday is a Visakha Bucha people vacation. Therefore, the judges are expected to meet on Thursday otherwise.

According to the source, judges may purchase Mr. Srettha and Pichit to be suspended from work until a decision is reached, adding that the set will then have 15 times to file a defense.

The visit of Pichit as the PM’s Office Minister, who was also Mr. Srettha’s former prosecutor and was an advisor to him, even raises questions about his registration to be a cabinet minister.

Because he was sentenced to prison for contempt of court when he represented Thaksin in a contentious land dispute back in 2008, he did so when he was a lawyer for him in a contentious area event.

After they attempted to pay Supreme Court officers by handing them a paper bag containing 2 million ringgit in income a month earlier, the Supreme Court sentenced Pichit and two of his associates to six months in prison.

In the Ratchadaphisek property circumstance, for which Thaksin received a two-year prison sentence in 2008, all three of Thaksin’s former partners, Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra and his ex-wife, were represented.

Mr. Srettha asserted once more during his trip to Italy on Saturday that he had asked the Council of State, the government’s legal shoulder, for legal counsel before submitting the new government line to the royal support.

Prior to this, a resource in the case claimed that Pichit’s imprisonment in the 2008 contempt of court case did not prevent him from being elected as a cabinet minister. Between finishing a prison term and the appointment, the conviction had long passed the necessary 10-year break.

But, the question of whether Pichit complies with the MP’s moral and ethical standards as stated in the contract is a different issue, according to the cause.

PM’s Office Minister Pichit Chuenban