The Appeal Court on Thursday sentenced a former actor and an ex-MP to a suspended jail term of one year and four months and fined them 66,666 baht each for defaming a red-shirt leader.
Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) or the red-shirt group, filed a defamation lawsuit against seven people six years ago. Among them were Methee Amornwuthikul, then an actor and key red-shirt supporter, and former Democrat MP Vachara Phetthong.
In its verdict, the court upheld the Criminal Court's ruling on Methee, but reversed the lower court’s acquittal of Vachara.
The case also involved five other defendants -- Naew Na Thai-language newspaper, Chokchai Sumon, NST News Co, ASTV Manager Co and Manager daily editor Tul Sirikulpipat.
The lawsuit said Methee had defamed Mr Jatuporn during the Oct 12, 2010 media interview by saying the UDD leader had embezzled 68 million baht from the red shirts' donations to the UDD, had an improper conduct with a woman while on a beach and had threatened to kill him.
The Criminal Court earlier found Methee had no solid evidence for his accusations.
The court initially sentenced Methee to two years' imprisonment and imposed a fine of 100,000 baht. But because he had cooperated with authorities the penalty was commuted by one-third to a suspended two year jail term and a 66,666-baht fine.
The first court dismissed the charges against Vachara and the other defendants, who were members of the media, finding they had acted honestly in publishing the interview with Methee.
In Vachara’s case, the first court found the former Democrat MP had not acted honestly in disseminating Mr Methee’s interview in his article, which was published in the Naew Na newspaper.
The Apppeal Court on Thursday reversed the lower court’s ruling on Vachara.
The former actor on Thursday showed up in the Criminal Court to hear the Appeal Court’s ruling.
On the Appeal Court's issuing of a warrant for his arrest on May 3 this year for failing to hear a court ruling, Mr Methee said he was under the Department of Special Investigation’s witness protection programme in a terrorist case against the UDD leaders and that he had not been aware of the court’s previous schedule for the sentence hearing.
After the warrant had been issued for his arrest, officers took him to report to the court, which later withdrew the arrest warrant, he explained.