The Supreme Court has ended a legal battle involving two articles insulting the monarch seven years ago by reducing to six years the 10-year jail term of lese majeste convict Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a former editor of a red-shirt magazine.
The revised sentence is based on two counts of his wrongdoing which has resulted in Somyot being imprisoned for more than five years after he lost his case in the lower courts.
Handing down the verdict yesterday in a Criminal Court room packed with Somyot's supporters as well as Thai and foreign observers, the judge upheld previous court rulings which found him guilty of violating Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law, but reduced his jail term.
The section says "whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir to the throne or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years".
During the trials, Somyot fought the accusation, brought to the Criminal Court by prosecutors in 2011, by asserting he did not write the articles and arguing he carefully considered their content.
He said they referred only to "elite bureaucrats", not the monarch, and decided to publish them in the Voice of Taksin magazine in February and March in 2010.
The writer of the articles, which touched upon the Oct 6 massacre of pro-democracy students in 1976, is Jakrapob Penkair who wrote under a pen name "Chit Phonchan", Somyot told the court.
Mr Jakrapob, one of the founding members of the pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), is also wanted on lese majeste charges, but he is still at large.
Considering Somyot's testimony that he is loyal to the monarch, is not the writer of the articles and did not have any intention to commit the mistake, the Supreme Court said it had agreed to adjust his jail term to make it correspond with his "behaviour, age and education".
The 56-year-old former labour rights advocate graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science. He once worked for a non-governmental organisation and later decided to help edit Voice of Taksin magazine, which is known to publish contentious articles.
The judge decided to reduce the five-year jail term for each count of the wrongdoing to three years each.
In total, Somyot has to serve six years in jail, plus an additional one-year jail term previously imposed by the court in the other case in which he was found guilty of defaming former army chief Gen Saprang Kallayanamit.
Many of Somyot's supporters, including UDD chairman Jatuporn Prompan, yesterday turned up to give moral support.
As the convict was taken by Bangkok Remand Prison officers to hear the verdict, he met Mr Jatuporn, who tapped his shoulder gently to boost his morale.
Somyot has been jailed at the prison for more than five years. It will be six years in April but he has to serve one more year in jail previously imposed by the court in the other case in which he was found guilty of defaming Gen Saprang.
Somyot has been never granted bail during the trials, drawing criticism from human rights advocates.