The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders yesterday sentenced Somying Buabut, a former MP from the Pheu Thai Party, to three years and four months in prison for corruption related to the construction of a futsal field at a school in Amnat Charoen. However, the court suspended her jail sentence for three years.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general in September 2022 against Somying, a former MP for Amnat Charoen, and 11 others for alleged corruption involving the allocation of the 2012 fiscal year budget to the Office of the Educational Service Area in this northeastern province.
The offence occurred between 2011 and 2013.
The alleged corruption involved manipulating the bidding process for a sports field renovation project and related equipment, with the intent to favour certain bidders, resulting in contracts with state agencies for substandard construction work that was unusable.
There were 12 defendants in the case, with defendants Nos.4-11 being companies and board members.
The court decided to suspend Somying's sentence for three years, as she had taken action to mitigate the damage caused by the substandard construction and had no prior record of imprisonment.
Two other defendants also had their sentences suspended: the second defendant, Chinnapat Phumirat, former secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission, and the seventh defendant, the managing director.
The court found that Chinnapat had sought to secure budget allocations for the genuine benefit of the school.