The Criminal Court yesterday sentenced Methee Amornwuthikul, a former actor and supporter of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), to a one year and four month suspended jail term and fined him 66,666 baht for defaming UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan.
The case was filed by Mr Jatuporn against Mr Methee and six other defendants — Naew Na newspaper, Chokchai Sumon, former Democrat MP Vachara Phetthong, NST News Co, ASTV Manager Co and Manager daily editor Tul Sirikulpipat.
The lawsuit said Mr Methee, a former UDD core supporter, had defamed Mr Jatuporn during an interview with the media by saying the UDD leader had embezzled 68 million baht from donations given by red shirts to the UDD, had improper conduct with a woman while on a beach and had threatened to kill him.
The court found Mr Methee had no solid evidence to confirm his accusations.
The court initially sentenced Mr Methee to two years' imprisonment and imposed a fine of 100,000 baht. But because he cooperated with authorities the sentence was commuted by one-third, suspended for two years, and the fine cut to 66,666 baht.
Mr Methee was also ordered to publish the court's ruling in two newspapers.
The court dismissed charges against the other defendants, who were members of the media, finding they had acted honestly in publishing the interview with Mr Methee.
A red-shirt source said Mr Methee had accused Mr Jatuporn of embezzling the donations because he was dissatisfied with Mr Jatuporn's ban on him appearing on rally stages in 2010.