Convicted extortionist Xavier Andre Justo was deemed a flight risk and denied bail pending appeal on Monday by the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court, according to his lawyer Worasit Wiriyapiboon.
The court on Aug 17 sentenced the Swiss national to three years in prison for attempted blackmail of his former employer PetroSaudi International (PSI), backdated to his arrest on June 22.
On Oct 14, Justo's lawyer asked the appellate court to change the sentence to a suspended prison term.
On Monday, his lawyer sought bail for his client pending the outcome of his appeal.
The court denied the request. It said Justo’s prison term had already been reduced by half, on his confession, and if released he might jump bail, Mr Worasit said.
His lawyer also said that Justo’s lawsuit as a plaintiff against three people, including Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the Malaysian-born Britain-based editor of the online Sarawak Report, would go ahead as planned in Singapore.
Justo would be represented by a Singaporean lawyer and the three defendants would appear in the Singapore court on Nov 4 to hear the charges, Mr Worasit said.
Justo had previously claimed he was offered US$2 million to share confidential data from PetroSaudi with an unidentified Malaysian group, but he was never paid. In his 22-page confession, Justo named the individuals who allegedly offered to buy the information from him.
PetroSaudi is an energy company that was involved in a failed venture with state investmen firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2009.
Malaysian media, the Sarawak Report and The Age newspaper published reports about alleged misappropriation of funds at 1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Justo, 49, a former executive of PetroSaudi International, was arrested on Koh Samui island on June 22 and later convicted of disclosing confidential information from his ex-employer relating to alleged corruption at 1MDB.
Justo quit PetroSaudi International in 2011 and claimed to possess compromising information and wanted US$2.5 million not to reveal it.