Thai court suspends prime minister over leaked call

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra — Paetongtarn, 38, is the third prime minister from her 'powerful and polarizing' family

(Image credit: Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Thailand's Constitutional Court Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra as it adjudicates an ethics complaint triggered by a leaked phone conversation between her and influential senior Cambodian lawmaker Hun Sen about a smoldering border dispute that had left a Cambodian soldier dead. In the June 15 call, recorded and shared by Hun Sen, Paetongtarn called him "uncle" and criticized a Thai army commander, a "red line in a country where the military has significant clout," Reuters said.

Paetongtarn told reporters she accepted the court's decision and would try to prove that her "true intention" in the conversation "100% was to work for the country to maintain our sovereignty and save the lives of all our soldiers." The leaked recording "triggered domestic fury and has left Paetongtarn's coalition with a razor-thin majority" after its second-largest party quit the alliance, Reuters said. Her "battles after only 10 months in office" are the latest chapter in a "two-decade grudge match" between "the billionaire Shinawatra dynasty and an influential establishment backed by the army."

Paetongtarn, 38, is the third prime minister from her "powerful and polarizing" family, The New York Times said. Her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, was deposed in a 2006 coup and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra was ousted by the Constitutional Court in 2014, two weeks before the military toppled her successor's government in another coup. Tuesday's court decision "raised questions" about whether the family's "political comeback last year would end with another downfall," The Associated Press said.

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