Thaksin’s lawyer Wattana Tiangkul, however, said he would appeal the verdict at the Supreme Administrative Court.

Thaksin had filed a lawsuit against the Foreign Ministry’s permanent secretary and director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs last year for their decision to revoke his passports.

The officials, who have since left the positions, were accused of illegally issuing an order to revoke his passports No U957411 and Z530117. The lawsuit claims that only the executive branch can revoke passports, and that the director-general and the permanent secretary had no authority to revoke Thaksin’s passports.

Thaksin has also accused the two of discrimination and violating the Declaration of Human Rights and international law on civil and political rights.

The court, however, ruled that the decision was legal.

The director of the consular department decided to revoke Thaksin’s passports after the former leader gave an interview to a foreign news agency last year in South Korea in relation to the 2014 military coup and said some things that could affect the country’s security and reputation.

The court said the passport termination procedure followed due process and was lawful. Thaksin has been living in exile, mostly in Dubai, since his government was toppled by a coup in 2006. His passports were revoked every time those in power felt he posed a threat to them.

His diplomatic passport was revoked in 2008 when he was convicted of malfeasance over conflict of interest in the Ratchadaphisek land deal and his normal one was cancelled a few months later by the Abhisit Vejjajivaadministration. He was accused by the then-foreign minister Kasit Piromya of allegedly supporting the unrest led by the red-shirt United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship.

Once his sister Yingluck Shinawatra took over as premier in 2011, her government issued a passport for him. The then foreign minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said the former premier was no longer a threat to the Kingdom and that every Thai had the right to hold a Thai passport.

The revocation of his Thai passports, however, do not seem to pose any problems for Thaksin. He reportedly holds at least two other passports – one from Montenegro and another from Nicaragua. He got those passports after making enormous investments in these countries.