The Constitutional Court will rule on Aug 29 in the case seeking the removal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for her handling of a phone call with former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen.
The court said on Wednesday that it would hear testimony from Ms Paetongtarn and the National Security Council on Aug 21, and closing arguments on Aug 27, according to the Bangkok Post.
The judges will convene at 9.30am on Friday, Aug 29 to discuss and vote on the case, and will announce their ruling at 3pm.
Ms Paetongtarn has been suspended from prime ministerial duties since the court accepted the ethics complaint brought by a group of senators on July 1.
In an audio clip of the call leaked by Hun Sen, Ms Paetongtarn is heard calling the Cambodian strongman “uncle” and making disparaging remarks about a senior army commander.
She subsequently apologised but maintained that she was using a negotiating tactic in hopes of finding a peaceful resolution to the border dispute.
Public anger over the leaked call has led to anti-government rallies calling on Ms Paetongtarn to resign, but her supporters have said she has no intention to do so.
The ruling in the prime minister’s case will come a week after a Criminal Court ruling on Aug 22 in a lese-majeste case against her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The case stems from remarks he made in an interview with a South Korean newspaper in 2015.
And on Sept 9, Thaksin will be in court again, this time to hear the Supreme Court’s decision on his controversial six-month stay at Police General Hospital from August 2023 to February 2024.
Thaksin, 76, was sentenced to eight years in prison — later reduced to one year by a royal pardon — after returning to Thailand in August 2023. He never spent a single night in jail, and became eligible for parole after six months.
If the court decides that Thaksin’s prison sentence was not properly carried out, it could order him sent back to jail.