Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has filed a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court against the state's revocation of his two regular Thai passports.
His lawyer, Watthana Tiangkoon, on Wednesday submitted the lawsuit request on Thaksin's behalf during the first hearing of a case in which the fugitive former premier accused the chief of the Department of Consular Affairs and the permanent secretary for foreign affairs of illegally revoking the passports on May 26 this year.
Mr Watthana, consular affairs director-general Thongchai Chasawath and a representative of the permanent secretary for foreign affairs testified at the court on Wednesday.
The ministry decided to cancel Thaksin’s passports following media interviews he gave in South Korea. The interviews were deemed "inappropriate" by security authorities who claimed Thaksin's comments undermined national security and dignity.
In an interview with Chosun Ilbo newspaper in Seoul on May 20, 2015, Thaksin claimed that privy councillors supported the anti-government protests that culminated in the military coup that ousted his sister Yingluck's government on May 22, 2014.
After the 2006 coup, Thaksin’s passports were revoked, but the Yingluck government reinstated his regular passports in 2011.
In 2008, the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced Thaksin to two years in prison for helping his former wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra buy prime state land in the Ratchadaphisek area of Bangkok when he was prime minister in 2003.
Thaksin fled the country after receiving bail to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics just before the court handed down its sentence.