Thailand's Constitutional Court strikes again, removing yet another prime minister from office.
The country's notoriously interventionist panel of nine appointed judges has ruled that Paetongtarn Shinawatra violated ethical standards in a phone call she had in June with the veteran Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which he then leaked.
In it, Paetongtarn could be heard being conciliatory towards Hun Sen over their countries' border dispute and criticizing one of her own army commanders.
She defended her conversation saying she had been trying to make a diplomatic breakthrough with Hun Sen, an old friend of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, and stated that the conversation should have remained confidential.
The leak was damaging and deeply embarrassing for her and her Pheu Thai party, sparking calls for her resignation as her biggest coalition partner walked out of the government, leaving her with a slim majority.
In July, seven out of the nine judges on the court voted to suspend Paetongtarn, a decision that suggested she would follow the path of her four predecessors. Hence, Friday's verdict wasn't a surprise.
Paetongtarn is the fifth Thai prime minister to be removed from office by this court, all of them from administrations backed by her father.
This has fueled a widespread belief in Thailand that it almost exclusively rules against those seen as threats by conservative, royalist forces.
The court has also banned 112 political parties, including small ones and two previous incarnations of Thaksin's Pheu Thai party, and Move Forward, the reformist movement that won the last election in 2023.
In few other countries is the political landscape so meticulously policed by the judiciary.
