The Constitutional Court said on Tuesday it will consider the ethics case against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on July 10, pending receipt of opinions from involved people and organisations.
The court said it had assigned topics on which relevant organisations and people could submit written comments, which should be filed with the court within 15 days. This feedback would benefit its consideration of the case, the court said.
The prime minister submitted his defence to the Constitutional Court on June 7. The case concerns the controversial appointment of politician Pichit Chuenban as a PM’s Office minister.
The petition was lodged by a group of caretaker senators who asked the court if Mr Srettha and Pichit should be removed from office under Section 170 (4) and (5) of the constitution, which deals with the ethics of cabinet ministers. Pichit resigned from the cabinet last month.
Before Pichit was given the cabinet post, he was an adviser to Mr Srettha. But long before that Pichit was former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s lawyer in the “lunchbox cash” scandal.
Pichit was sentenced to six months in prison by the Supreme Court on June 25, 2008, along with two legal colleagues, for attempted bribery in handing Supreme Court officials a paper bag containing 2 million baht inside a lunch box. He served the time and is deemed unfit by his critics to serve as a cabinet minister.
All three were representing Thaksin and his ex-wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra in the Ratchadaphisek land purchase case, for which Thaksin was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008.
At that time Thaksin was charged with abusing his authority while being prime minister to facilitate his then-wife Khunying Potjaman's purchase of 33 rai of land on Thiam Ruam Mit Road in the Ratchadaphisek area from the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) at a discounted price of 772 million baht in 2003.
He was supposed to set a good example, maintaining the code of ethics for such an entrusted position, the Supreme Court said then.