Thai court removes PM Paetongtarn after leaked Hun Sen call

Thailand's Constitutional Court on Friday removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, ruling that a leaked June telephone call with Cambodia's former leader Hun Sen breached ethical standards and compromised national interests. The decision immediately ends Paetongtarn's roughly one year in office and deepens a political crisis in Bangkok as parties scramble to name a successor and stave off further instability.

The court found in a 6-3 vote that Paetongtarn's conduct in the June 15 call, during which she addressed Hun Sen as uncle and criticised a Thai army general, undermined the dignity of the prime minister's office. Audio of the call was leaked online by Hun Sen, the long-serving Cambodian leader, as tensions over a disputed border escalated into five days of fighting weeks later. Reports on the human toll of the clashes varied, with accounts citing more than 40 dead and between 260,000 and 300,000 people displaced.

Paetongtarn, the 39-year-old daughter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, defended her actions after the ruling, saying she had acted to protect lives. "All I wanted was to safeguard the lives of people, whether soldiers or civilians," she told...