Constitutional Court Dismisses Ethics Case Against Prayut
Thailand's Constitutional Court dismissed an ethics petition against former Deputy Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, ruling the complainant failed to prove direct harm from alleged improper appointments to a regional task force.
Thailand's Constitutional Court has dismissed a petition from Srisuwan Janya seeking a ruling that former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha violated ethical standards by appointing ineligible persons to the Regional Inspection Task Force 11. Srisuwan argued the appointments constituted abuse of power and violated constitutional provisions on citizens' rights and freedoms, resulting in his own legal troubles as a co-defendant. However, the court unanimously determined that Srisuwan failed to establish that he suffered direct harm or violation of his rights from Prayut's actions, and that the petition did not meet procedural requirements under the Constitutional Court Procedure Act of 2561, Section 46. The court noted that ethical complaints against state officials must follow specific statutory procedures outlined in Section 47(2), which reserve such matters for designated complaint mechanisms, making Srisuwan's petition inadmissible under constitutional Article 213.
