Thailand’s prime minister and senior members of her cabinet have been ousted by judges in a contentious ruling that threatens to plunge southeast Asia’s economic hub into deeper turmoil.
Government loyalist “red shirts” had warned they would rise up against any “judicial coup” launched by the courts against the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, which followed six months of opposition street protests.
Ms Yingluck is the third premier to be toppled by the judiciary in an eight-year power struggle between the country’s traditional elite and Thai voters who have delivered a string of electoral majorities to parties allied to her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.