The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Civil Court's one-month prison term handed down on Sudsa-nguan Suthisorn, a Thammasat University lecturer, for contempt of court.
The ruling was a reversal of the Appeals Court's decision to commute the one-month jail term to one month in detention.
Sudsa-nguan of Thammasat University's Faculty of Social Administration was found guilty by the Civil Court for contempt of court, along with Darunee Kritboonyalai and Picha Wijitsilp, a lawyer for the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, after they led about 130 people to lay wreaths and holding placards in front of the Civil Court on Feb 21, 2014.
The offence took place at the heights of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC)'s protests in Bangkok in early 2014 aimed at ousting then prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she had tried to ram through Parliament a blanket amnesty bill.
The trio staged the protest after the Civil Court ruled in favour of the PDRC, which sought the block Ms Yingluck from taking action under the emergency decree she had enforced to maintain order during the PDRC's protests and shutdowns of several public offices in the capital.
The Civil Court on Feb 19, 2014 ruled that while Ms Yingluck could issue the emergency decree, she could not take some action empowered under it, including that aimed at dissolving the protests, because the Constitutional Court had ruled earlier that the PDRC protests had been peaceful and without arms.
Two days later, the group laid wreaths at the court in protest against the ruling. The administrative director of the Civil Court later filed the contempt of court lawsuit against its leaders.
During the trial, Ms Darunee failed to show up to fight the case. The court issued a warrant for her arrest and adjourned the proceedings against her.
Sudsa-nguan and Picha confessed to the charge.
The Civil Court sentenced them to two months in jail, reduced to one month without suspension.
Picha died after the court delivered the sentence. Sudsa-nguan appealed.
On Nov 26, 2015, the Appeals Court commuted the one-month jail term to one month in detention -- a lighter penalty which can be served outside prison.
However, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the one-month prison term on Sudsa-nguan, reasoning that her action was a serious contempt of court and she was a scholar who should have known better. She was put in jail right after the sentence was delivered.