Thai court dismisses prime minister over compromising phone call with Cambodian leader

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, ruling that she violated ethics rules in a phone call with a high-ranking Cambodian official.

The decision ends the term of the nation’s youngest prime minister and delivers the latest blow to the powerful Shinawatra political dynasty that has dominated Thai politics for more than two decades.

In a 6-3 vote, the judges found that Paetongtarn’s conduct in a June 15 call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen compromised national interests.

The call, which became public just weeks before a deadly border conflict erupted between the two countries, sparked outrage in Thailand. Audio of the conversation revealed Paetongtarn addressing Hun Sen as “uncle” and appearing to criticize a Thai army general as an “opponent” while discussing the tense border situation.

The complaint against Paetongtarn lodged by a group of senators alleged that “due to a personal relationship that appeared aligned with Cambodia, (she) was consistently willing to comply with or act in accordance with the wishes of the Cambodian side.”

It further charged that her reference to the Thai general “lacked demonstrable honesty and integrity, and seriously violated or failed to comply with ethical standards."

However, the court said in its ruling that Paetongtarn intended to uphold Thailand’s national interests and tried to prevent serious conflicts that could affect its sovereignty and border security. It concluded that her actions did not clearly appear to be dishonest. The majority opinion nevertheless found that her conversation constituted a breach of ethical standards.

Paetongtarn, 39, has defended herself by arguing that her familiar tone during the call was a negotiating tactic aimed at de-escalating tensions. She apologized, but insisted that it did not damage national security.

After the court's ruling Friday, she said she would accept it but insisted that she was innocent and had acted with the sole purpose of saving lives.

Audio of the call was leaked online by Hun Sen, who was Cambodia’s prime minister for 38 years until his son Hun Manet took over the job in 2023. The phone call came as long-standing border tensions escalated after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief fracas with Thai troops in disputed territory in May.

In late June, the two countries engaged in five days of combat that killed dozens of people and displaced more than 260,000.

The friendly tone of Paetongtarn’s call raised hackles among many Thais because of her family's history.

Her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, a business owner who earned a vast fortune in the telecommunications sector and who was prime minister from 2001-2006, has in the past faced allegations of putting his personal interests over those of the nation, and had a seemingly warm friendship with Hun Sen.

Friday's ruling is also a blow to Thaksin, who was ousted from power by a military coup but has managed to remain a dominant force in Thai politics

Paetongtarn, a former executive in a hotel business run by her family, was the third close member of the Shinawatra clan to take the prime minister’s job. Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was Thailand’s first female prime minister from 2011 to 2014, and like her brother was forced out of office before her term was up. Thaksin’s brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, also served briefly as prime minister in 2008.

Other Thaksin political allies have also held office and been forced out early. Paetongtarn’s immediate predecessor as prime minister, real estate executive Srettha Thavisin, was forced out last August when the Constitutional Court found him guilty of a serious ethics breach.

The fortunes of Thaksin’s political machine have met with victories and setbacks, with mandates at the ballot box often undone by coups or court rulings. Polarization between his supporters and opponents have also led to street violence, which have contributed to destabilizing governments he backed.

Thaksin's critics accuse him of corruption and abuse of power, as well as disrespect toward the country’s revered monarch. But he has undoubted populist appeal to voters, feeding fears of a parliamentary dictatorship. Concern runs highest among members of the country’s conservative royalist ruling class, who fear that their long-standing influence would be diminished. Leading defenders of the status quo include the army and the courts.

The controversy over the call with Hun Sen came after Paetongtarn’s government was already facing headwinds, due largely to its failure to turn around an economy that had been lagging since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court’s ruling puts the ruling coalition led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party on shaky ground. Controversy over the phone call already caused the Bhumjaithai Party, the biggest partner of Pheu Thai, to drop out, leaving the coalition with a slim majority of seats in the House of Representatives.

Paetongtarn was already suspended from her duties on July 1 when the court agreed to hear the case against her, and Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai took over her responsibilities.

The Cabinet led by Phumtham will stay in place on a caretaker basis until Parliament approves a new prime minister, though a vote has not yet been scheduled. The caretaker Cabinet could also dissolve Parliament and call a new election.

This report has been corrected to state that the characterizations of Paetongtarn’s actions as lacking honesty and integrity were made by the complainants, not by the court. The error was due to incomplete information initially received from the court.

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, right, gestures at acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai during a press conference after her dismissal, in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, center, leaves a press conference after her dismissal, in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra gestures during a press conference after her dismissal, in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra waves as she leaves the Government House after being dismissed from her position, in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, left, arrives at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, center, arrives at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a dominant concern in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a woman in her car last week.

They have pointed rifles at demonstrators and deployed chemical irritants early in confrontations. They have broken vehicle windows and pulled occupants from cars. They have scuffled with protesters and shoved them to the ground.

The government says the actions are necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. The encounters in turn have riled up protesters even more, especially as videos of the incidents are shared widely on social media.

What is unfolding in Minneapolis reflects a broader shift in how the federal government is asserting its authority during protests, relying on immigration agents and investigators to perform crowd-management roles traditionally handled by local police who often have more training in public order tactics and de-escalating large crowds.

Experts warn the approach runs counter to de-escalation standards and risks turning volatile demonstrations into deadly encounters.

The confrontations come amid a major immigration enforcement surge ordered by the Trump administration in early December, which sent more than 2,000 officers from across the Department of Homeland Security into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Many of the officers involved are typically tasked with arrests, deportations and criminal investigations, not managing volatile public demonstrations.

Tensions escalated after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration agent last week, an incident federal officials have defended as self-defense after they say Good weaponized her vehicle.

The killing has intensified protests and scrutiny of the federal response.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota asked a federal judge to intervene, filing a lawsuit on behalf of six residents seeking an emergency injunction to limit how federal agents operate during protests, including restrictions on the use of chemical agents, the pointing of firearms at non-threatening individuals and interference with lawful video recording.

“There’s so much about what’s happening now that is not a traditional approach to immigration apprehensions,” said former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña.

Saldaña, who left the post at the beginning of 2017 as President Donald Trump's first term began, said she can't speak to how the agency currently trains its officers. When she was director, she said officers received training on how to interact with people who might be observing an apprehension or filming officers, but agents rarely had to deal with crowds or protests.

“This is different. You would hope that the agency would be responsive given the evolution of what’s happening — brought on, mind you, by the aggressive approach that has been taken coming from the top,” she said.

Ian Adams, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the majority of crowd-management or protest training in policing happens at the local level — usually at larger police departments that have public order units.

“It’s highly unlikely that your typical ICE agent has a great deal of experience with public order tactics or control,” Adams said.

DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement that ICE officer candidates receive extensive training over eight weeks in courses that include conflict management and de-escalation. She said many of the candidates are military veterans and about 85% have previous law enforcement experience.

“All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where they are trained in everything from de-escalation tactics to firearms to driving training. Homeland Security Investigations candidates receive more than 100 days of specialized training," she said.

Ed Maguire, a criminology professor at Arizona State University, has written extensively about crowd-management and protest- related law enforcement training. He said while he hasn't seen the current training curriculum for ICE officers, he has reviewed recent training materials for federal officers and called it “horrifying.”

Maguire said what he's seeing in Minneapolis feels like a perfect storm for bad consequences.

“You can't even say this doesn't meet best practices. That's too high a bar. These don't seem to meet generally accepted practices,” he said.

“We’re seeing routinely substandard law enforcement practices that would just never be accepted at the local level,” he added. “Then there seems to be just an absence of standard accountability practices.”

Adams noted that police department practices have "evolved to understand that the sort of 1950s and 1960s instinct to meet every protest with force, has blowback effects that actually make the disorder worse.”

He said police departments now try to open communication with organizers, set boundaries and sometimes even show deference within reason. There's an understanding that inside of a crowd, using unnecessary force can have a domino effect that might cause escalation from protesters and from officers.

Despite training for officers responding to civil unrest dramatically shifting over the last four decades, there is no nationwide standard of best practices. For example, some departments bar officers from spraying pepper spray directly into the face of people exercising Constitutional speech. Others bar the use of tear gas or other chemical agents in residential neighborhoods.

Regardless of the specifics, experts recommend that departments have written policies they review regularly.

“Organizations and agencies aren’t always familiar with what their own policies are,” said Humberto Cardounel, senior director of training and technical assistance at the National Policing Institute.

“They go through it once in basic training then expect (officers) to know how to comport themselves two years later, five years later," he said. "We encourage them to understand and know their training, but also to simulate their training.”

Adams said part of the reason local officers are the best option for performing public order tasks is they have a compact with the community.

“I think at the heart of this is the challenge of calling what ICE is doing even policing,” he said.

"Police agencies have a relationship with their community that extends before and after any incidents. Officers know we will be here no matter what happens, and the community knows regardless of what happens today, these officers will be here tomorrow.”

Saldaña noted that both sides have increased their aggression.

“You cannot put yourself in front of an armed officer, you cannot put your hands on them certainly. That is impeding law enforcement actions,” she said.

“At this point, I’m getting concerned on both sides — the aggression from law enforcement and the increasingly aggressive behavior from protesters.”

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People cover tear gas deployed by federal immigration officers outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A man is pushed to the ground as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)