Yingluck In Court, Supporters And Opponents Ready To Take Fight To The Street

BANGKOK, April 18 (Bernama) -- The political temperature in Thailand, particularly in Bangkok, has been cooled down a bit by the water splashed around during Songkran in the past few days. However, now it certainly rises again as the country's Constitutional Court is about to decide on the political fate of its embattled caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. At the moment, the battle is in the courtroom but it will soon spread to the street as both the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee have announced plans to hold rallies. They plan the rallies on the day when the court decides on the case involving the transfer of the former National Security Council (NSC) chief, Thawil Pliensri. In the courtroom, the Constitutional Court is to decide whether to give Yingluck more time to prepare her defence in the case involving the transfer of Thawil. The Constitutional Court's secretary-general Chaowana Trimas said the court would hold a meeting on April 23 to decide on Yingluck's request for more time to prepare her defence in the case. "The judges have yet to give their opinions on the matter but they are still doing their duty as usual," said Chaowana. He was earlier asked whether the court was pressured to consider the case due to the pro-government and anti-government groups' plan to hold rallies on the day the court would make its ruling on the case. He said the court's consideration was not the political goal but the law, and insisted that the court worked on every case in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner. The Constitutional Court earlier accepted a request to rule whether or not Yingluck, who is also Defence Minister, had abused her power over the Thawil case, who was removed from his post under a prime ministerial order and transferred to a position as an adviser to the Prime Minister's Office. Thursday was the deadline for Yingluck to defend herself in the case, but she through her lawyers submitted a request for a 15-day extension to prepare the documents and evidence. -- BERNAMA