Court dismisses Thai PM, part of cabinet from office

Jubilant anti-government demonstrators, who accuse Yingluck of acting as a proxy for her fugitive brother Thaksin and have been demanding her ouster for the last several months, blew whistles outside the court.  In the ruling, the court said Yingluck took part in the approval of the transfer.

Yingluck, 46, has argued that she assigned her deputy to handle the issue so she did not take part in it.  The court also found nine ministers who were part of Yingluck's cabinet to be complicit in the decision and ordered them to be removed from their office.

“Transferring government officials must be done in accordance with moral principle,” the court said.

 “Transferring with a hidden agenda is not acceptable. The Constitutional Court has ruled unanimously that (Yingluck) has used her status as the prime minister to intervene for her own and others' benefits to (transfer) a government official,” the court said in its verdict.