BANGKOK — A Thai court on Wednesday ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra removed from office, a highly divisive move and a victory for the powerful antigovernment movement that has sought to overthrow the government in Bangkok for the last six months.
The court ruled that Ms. Yingluck abused her power when she transferred a civil servant more than three years ago. It was not immediately clear who would take Ms. Yingluck’s place. The court also ordered removed all members of Ms. Yingluck’s cabinet who were in office at the time of the transfer.
It was the third time since 2006 that a prime minister representing the political movement founded by Ms. Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was removed by court order. The movement, which has its power base in the provinces, has won every election since 2001 but has antagonized the Bangkok establishment, a political struggle that is at the heart of Thailand’s eight years of political crisis.
The court’s decision, which highlights its overtly political role, was the coup de grace in a six-month campaign to remove Ms. Yingluck from power. It throws into question elections announced for July 20, which the governing party were likely to win because of their strong support in northern provinces.
The verdict, which was read on national television, was unanimous among the court’s nine judges and reached with unusual speed. It was delivered just one day after Ms. Yingluck gave evidence at the court. Ms. Yingluck was the country’s first female prime minister but was loathed by the opposition and called a proxy for her brother, Mr. Thaksin, who lives in self-exile after a 2006 military coup and a subsequent conviction for abuse of power in a highly politicized trial.
The antigovernment movement, which is supported by some of the wealthiest families in the country, turned to the courts after unsuccessfully trying to force Ms. Yingluck out by shutting down government offices and occupying major intersections in central Bangkok in a protracted political battle that has left Thailand rudderless.
The constitutional court has backed the protest movement, saying in previous rulings that protesters, who also led a campaign to block elections, had the “right to exercise their rights and liberty.” A lower court barred the government from dispersing protesters.
As the antigovernment movement cheered the decision to remove Ms. Yingluck, independent legal experts despaired over what they described as the crusading role of the courts and the damage to the prestige of the judiciary.
The decision to remove Ms. Yingluck is “total nonsense in a democratic society,” said Ekachai Chainuvati, the deputy dean of the law faculty at Siam University in Bangkok.
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