Pheu Thai Ex-Spokesman Prompong, Another MP To Serve One-Year Jail Term

BANGKOK: -- PHEU THAI Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit and another party politician were sentenced to a year in jail yesterday for libelling former Constitution Court president Wasant Soypisut.

The Supreme Court found Prompong and Kiart-udom Menasawat, both former Pheu Thai MPs, guilty of making slanderous statements via media against Wasant in June 2010.

In the statement, Prompong and Kiart-udom accused Wasant of lacking neutrality and credibility as a judge, which prompted him to file a lawsuit a week later.

In July 2012, a lower court found both defendants guilty and sentenced them to a year in jail each, but suspended the punishment for two years, as they had no criminal record. They were also ordered to publish an apology in three newspapers for seven consecutive days.

However, the politicians appealed against the verdict and in December 2013, the Appeals Court found them guilty and sentenced them to a year in jail with no option for a suspended sentence. Yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld this ruling.

The politicians' friends and relatives were in the courtroom for moral support, and when Pichit Chuenban - a party member and former legal adviser to ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra - hugged Prompong, the latter was heard saying "it's OK, I'm still fine".

Prompong and Kiart-udom were later escorted out of the courtroom by corrections officials.

Separately, the Supreme Court yesterday discussed the defamation case against former and current Democrat Party politicians filed by Prommin Lertsuridej, an executive of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party. After deliberation, the judges decided to dismiss the case against former Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban, who is now a Buddhist monk, party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and former party spokesman Ongart Klampaiboon.

After hearing the verdict, the three defendants walked out of the courtroom without speaking to reporters.

Prommin had sued the Democrat Party and the three politicians for accusing him of being involved in electoral fraud.

When a lower court dismissed the case in 2009, Prommin appealed and the Appeals Court in 2012 sentenced Suthep to a suspended sentence of four months in jail.

The Supreme Court yesterday altered the ruling and dismissed the case.