The Supreme Court has upheld a 16-month jail term for the father of the murderer of outspoken property tycoon Akeyuth Anchanbutr, who received 4 million baht stolen from the victim.
The ruling, announced at the Criminal Court in Bangkok on Wednesday, upheld the jail term for Itthiphon Pengduang, 55, the father of Santiphap Pengduang, 27, who was Akeyuth's driver.
Itthiphon and his wife Chitamphai Pengduang, 52, were found guilty of keeping 4.24 million baht in cash stolen from Akeyuth and given to them by their son Santiphap after he murdered the property tycoon.
Ittiphon earlier asked for the imprisonment to be suspended, arguing that he never committed a crime. The court rejected the request on the grounds that he knew the money was obtained through crime. He failed to object to the crime and divided the money into two parts to be hidden.
Santiphap and Sutthipoing Pimpisarn, 32, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Criminal Court in December 2014. They did not appeal but regulations required that a case with such a harsh penalty be forwarded to the Appeal Court. which upheld the ruling in June last year.
Chawalit Wunchum, 27, and Thiwakon Kueathong, 22, were found guilty of digging a hole to bury the body. Chawalit was sentenced to 19 months for concealment of a body, violation of the Firearms Act and violation of an earlier suspended jail term.
Thiwakon was sentenced to eight months in jail and completed his sentence. All six were natives of Phatthalung province.
They were charged with murder, concealment of a body, detention, coercion, robbery, receiving stolen property and illegal possession of firearms.
According to public prosecutors, the crime was committed on June 6-9, 2013. Akeyuth was detained, robbed and forced to obtain money for the perpetrators. The stolen assets amounted to 6.6 million baht.
The victim was then strangled. His body was transported in his Volkswagen van to a deserted plantation in Muang district of Phatthalung, where it was buried. Officials found the naked body, with signs of strangulation on the neck and severe facial wounds, on June 12, 2013.
Akeyuth had been strongly critical of former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra.
In 2012, Akeyuth claimed he was assaulted by one of Ms Yingluck's guards after he had spotted the then-premier privately meeting businesspeople at Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok instead of attending a session of parliament, and publicly denounced her.
Srettha Thavisin, president of Sansiri Plc, later admitted that the meeting took place on Feb 8, 2012. Opposition politicians also complained Ms Yingluck had skipped a House session that day.