The Criminal Court on Wednesday postponed to Aug 27 the verdict in former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s defamation case against three ex-Democrat MPs over a 2012 private meeting at a Bangkok hotel.
Chavanont Intarakomalyasut, a former party list MP, Tepthai Senpong, a former Nakhon Si Thammarat MP, and Sirichok Sopha, a former Songkhla MP, were accused of defaming Ms Yingluck in violation of Sections 136, 326, 328 and 332 of the Criminal Code.
They allegedly made offensive comments about the former premier while hosting a show on the Blue Sky satellite-television station Feb 10 and 15, 2012, alleging Ms Yingluck had skipped a parliamentary session to meet privately with businesspeople at the Four Seasons Hotel.
The court originally set Aug 19 to read the verdict. But, only Mr Chavanont and Mr Tepthai showed, while Mr Sirichok assigned a lawyer to ask the court to postpone the reading, claiming he was overseas.
The court postponed the verdict reading to Aug 27 at 1.30pm.
This is one of the three separate cases filed by Ms Yingluck over her Four Seasons meeting.
One of the two other cases was filed against Mr Chavanont, the Democrat Party spokesman, for press interviews Feb 19-21, 2012. The Criminal Court dismissed the case on March 16 this year.
The other case was against Mallika Boonmeetrakul, deputy spokeswoman of the Democrat Party, for similar press interviews on Feb 19-20, 2012. The court also threw out that case.
In both suits, the court said Ms Yingluck was a public figure who was normally subject to criticism.