The Supreme Court yesterday issued a ruling to increase the prison sentence handed down to former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom from 42 years to 48, for his role in the fake government-to-government (G2G) agreements.
The appeal was lodged after the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Aug 25, 2017, found 15 defendants guilty of involvement in corrupt rice deals.
The plenary session of the Supreme Court set up a panel to review the appeal.
The court spent almost eight hours reading the ruling, which started at noon yesterday. The sentences for the 14 other defendants remain unchanged.
All 15 defendants were escorted from Bangkok Remand Prison to hear the appeal ruling at the Supreme Court near Sanam Luang.
Some of them were said to have health problems.
In the 2017 ruling, the court found that the G2G contracts to export pledged rice to China were fabricated and in fact involved the sale of the pledged rice to private companies in Thailand, that in turn sold them to a third party.
Former deputy commerce minister Poom Sarapol was sentenced to 36 years in prison and rice trader Apichart "Sia Piang" Chansakulporn, executive of rice exporter Siam Indica Co Ltd, was sentenced to 48 years in prison in the same case.
The scandal also involves former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was found guilty by the court of negligence of duty for ignoring corruption in the rice-pledging scheme.
She was sentenced to five years in jail in absentia.