The Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced three ex-Democrat MPs to a year in jail each, suspended for two years, and a fine of 50,000 baht for defaming former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra over a 2012 private meeting at a Bangkok hotel.
Chavanont Intarakomalyasut, a former party list MP, Thepthai Senpong, a former Nakhon Si Thammarat MP, and Sirichok Sopha, a former Songkhla MP, were convicted of slandering 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 the Sai Lor Fa (Lightning Rod) talk show on the Blue Sky satellite-television station on 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 found the three defendants intended to make their audience believe that Ms Yingluck had skipped the parliamentary meeting to do something inappropriate. Their remarks were deemed defamatory, causing damage to the plaintiff's reputation, said the court. They had neither scrutinised the work of the then-prime minister nor given their comments justly.
The court handed down a one-year jail term and a fine of 50,000 baht each to the defendants. As they had not been previously convicted, their sentence was suspended for two years.
The court also ordered the seizure of tape recordings of the talk show for destruction and the defendants were ordered to publish its ruling in five daily newspapers for seven consecutive days.