The Appeals Court upheld a one-year jail term for three Democrat members, suspended for two years, in a defamation case brought by former PM Yingluck Shinawatra but acquitted one of them in another defamation case filed by her brother.
The court in the morning upheld a one-year jail term, suspended for two years, handed down by the Criminal Court on three Bluesky TV news anchors, for defaming former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The three are Chavanont Intarakomalyasut, Thepthai Senapong and Sirichok Sopha, members of the Democrat Party.
The Criminal Court on Aug 26, 2015 found them guilty of defaming Ms Yingluck while they were hosting the Sai Lor Fa television programme on Bluesky Channel on Feb 10 -15, 2012.
The court found they intentionally made viewers believe Ms Yingluck had broken a code of ethics by attending a private meeting with businessmen at the Four Seasons Hotel, instead of attending a parliament sitting.
They were each sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 50,000 baht. The jail term was suspended for two years. The three appealed.
Later in the afternoon, the court upheld the Criminal Court's decision to acquit Mr Thepthai in a defamation case filed by Ms Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin accused Mr Thepthai, a spokesman of Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, of defaming him , at the party's news conference on May 17-19, 2006 when he said Thaksin handled the country's administration in a CEO-style and compared him to "a spirit" which tried unsuccessfully to return to a body it had previously possessed, thus ruining his reputation.
The Criminal Court ordered the case dismissed, saying that judging from the evidence presented to the court Mr Thepthai had only criticised Thaksin for his style of administration and expressed his political opinions about Thaksin, who was a public figure.
Thaksin appealed.