A court has dismissed a claim from former lawyers of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to overturn their ban from the Lawyers Council of Thailand (LCT).
The Central Administrative Court on Friday dismissed the complaint from Phichit Chuenban and Supasri Srisawat, who had asked the court to overturn the LCT's cancellation of their registration.
On June 25, 2008, the Supreme Court sentenced Mr Phichit, and his colleagues Ms Supasri and Thana Tansiri, to six months' jail for contempt of court.
They had allegedly offered a sealed snack box containing about two million baht in cash to bribe legal officers at the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on June 10 of that year.
After the three finished their jail terms, prosecutors decided not to press bribery charges against them.
The three represented Thaksin and his ex-wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra in the Ratchadaphisek land case in which Thaksin was sentenced to two years in prison.
The three were disbarred by the LCT's board after a Lawyers Council ethics committee found they breached the code of conduct, based on the Supreme Court ruling.
Upholding the Supreme Court's ruling, the Administrative Court said on Friday that the two complainants — Mr Phichit and Ms Supasri — acted improperly in the Supreme Court's premises when they offered a snack box containing the money to court officials, constituting an act of contempt of court.
The Administrative Court said the fact that they had breached the code of conduct for lawyers still stood.
The court also said the decision by the LCT's ethics committee and the board to punish them by cancelling their registration with was valid.
