Thai King fires 6 officials for ‘evil’ conduct
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has dismissed six palace staffers, just days after stripping his royal consort of her titles and military ranks for what he termed disloyalty.
The six palace officials were dismissed and stripped of their ranks and royal decorations on Wednesday.
The most senior, a police lieutenant general with the Royal Household Bureau, sometimes represented the palace in public events. He was accused of “evil” actions — serious misconduct — and exploiting his job for personal gain.
The others, attached to palace guard units, were similarly accused.
The ousted consort, Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi, had been a senior officer in a palace security unit.
Sineenatra was stripped Monday of her positions and decorations for actions undermining the position of Queen Suthida, the king’s official wife, for her own benefit.
Reuters was unable to reach the six officials for comment.
Meanwhile, Sineenatra’s whereabout since her dismissal are not known.
The Wednesday statements did not directly link the six sacked officials to Sineenatra’s dismissal.
Since taking the throne following the death of his revered father King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016, Vajiralongkorn has proved to be an assertive constitutional monarch, taking more direct control of royal affairs and the crown’s vast wealth, and transferring two military units from the Royal Thai Army to his personal control.
Public criticism of the king or the royal family is illegal under Thailand’s strict lese majeste laws, with insults to the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Both the queen and Sineenatra had been granted military titles by King Vajiralongkorn in his personal bodyguard unit over several years. Their personal relationships with the king were only confirmed with palace announcements this year.
What little is known about Sineenatra come from the royal biography that has now been scrubbed from the palace website.
It had said she was from Nan province in northern Thailand. She studied nursing at a military college, graduated in 2008 and worked in hospitals until she formally entered royal service for the then-Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in 2012.
She became a royal guard in 2015 with the rank of major in the Royal Thai Army. She was named a colonel and granted a command of a battalion in 2018. Shortly before the coronation, she was promoted to major general.
While King Vajiralongkorn was crown prince, he was married and divorced three times, with at least two of his unions ending with public signs of acrimony.
In 1996, he announced his divorce from his second wife, Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, by putting up posters around his palace. A photo of one poster shows it ordered her banished for adultery, abusing her daughter and fraud. She and her four sons fled the country and live in the United States.
His third wife, former lady-inwaiting Srirasmi Suwadee, has lived in seclusion outside Bangkok since her divorce in 2014 after the arrest of several of her relatives accused of making false claims of having links to the monarchy for financial gain.