Thai court rules minister can keep job despite alleged heroin trafficking link
Story by Reuters
Updated 10:28 PM ET, Wed May 5, 2021
Thai Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompao (L) at Government House in Bangkok on September 10, 2019.
BangkokThailand s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a prominent politician should keep his cabinet post, thwarting opposition moves to disqualify him over news reports he was jailed in Australia for drug trafficking in the 1990s.
The ruling said Thammanat Prompao, a deputy agriculture minister and power broker in Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha s ruling coalition, did not violate the constitution because he had not been convicted by a Thai court.