Former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama is unfazed about having to face legal action for signing the "Preah Vihear communique" without parliamentary approval in 2008.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions decided yesterday to accept for consideration the case brought by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) accusing Mr Noppadon of negligence while he was foreign minister in the Samak Sundaravej government.
Upon hearing the court had accepted the case, Mr Noppadon said he was protecting Thai sovereignty when he signed a joint communique backing Phnom Penh's push for the Preah Vihear temple to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.
Mr Noppadon, a close aide and legal adviser to Thaksin Shinawatra, said he did not try to bypass parliamentary approval for the communique and pointed out that Thailand did not lose any of the temple's surrounding territory that is claimed by both Bangkok and Phnom Penh.
The NACC accused Mr Noppadon of violating Section 190 of the constitution in failing to seek parliamentary consent prior to signing the joint communique on June 18, 2008 with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
The signing came a day after cabinet approval for him to ink the document, but without parliamentary backing.
The judges said the petition was correctly drawn up and constitutional and therefore they agreed to accept the case for consideration. The court set the first hearing for July 5 at 1.30pm.
The communique was later nullified by a ruling of the Central Administrative Court in June, forcing Mr Noppadon to resign from office a month later.
The Supreme Administrative Court upheld the lower court's ruling in September.
Mr Noppadon accused the NACC of lying and intentionally casting him in a negative light in its petition to the Supreme Court.
All processes leading to the communique had been undertaken properly after seeking advice from government legal experts, the armed forces and security agencies, Mr Noppadon said.
They agreed that supporting the listing of the ancient Hindu temple ruins by Cambodia would not disturb the land around the temple, and in fact protected it from being unilaterally claimed by Cambodia, he said.