The Thai Constitutional Court will deliver its verdict on August 29 in the case seeking the removal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over her handling of a controversial phone call with former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen.
The court announced on Wednesday that it will hear testimony from Ms. Paetongtarn and the National Security Council on August 21, followed by closing arguments on August 27. Judges will convene at 9:30am on August 29 to deliberate, with the ruling set to be read at 3pm.
Ms. Paetongtarn has been suspended from her duties since July 1, when the court accepted an ethics complaint filed by a group of senators.
The complaint centres on an audio recording of the call, leaked by Hun Sen, in which she refers to him as “uncle” and makes disparaging remarks about a senior army commander.
The prime minister later apologised, saying her comments were part of a negotiating tactic to secure a peaceful resolution to a border dispute.
The leak, however, sparked public outrage and prompted anti-government rallies calling for her resignation. Supporters have maintained she has no intention of stepping down.
The ruling will come a week after the Criminal Court’s decision on August 22 in a lese-majeste case against her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, stemming from comments he made to a South Korean newspaper in 2015.
Thaksin is also scheduled to appear before the Supreme Court on September 9 for a ruling on the legality of his six-month stay at Police General Hospital between August 2023 and February 2024.
The 76-year-old was sentenced to eight years in prison, later reduced to one year by royal pardon, after returning to Thailand in August 2023, but never spent a night in jail and became eligible for parole after six months.
If the court rules his sentence was improperly served, it could order him back to prison.
