The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced former Democrat Party MP Vachara Phetthong to a 32-month suspended prison term and fined him 320,000 baht for defaming Chatchawal Apibansri, then a member of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), in 2018.
The court also ordered Mr Vachara to pay Mr Chatchawal 500,000 baht in damages.
The court ruled in favour of a lawsuit filed by Mr Chatchawal over comments made on March 7, 2018 by Mr Vachara, who was co-hosting a television programme.
Mr Chatchawal was then chairman of a committee for the acceleration of the construction of the new parliament.
According to the lawsuit, Mr Vacharra wrongfully accused him of acting like a big boss in pushing for an increase in the budget for the new parliament's information and communication system, from 3 billion baht to 8 billion baht, saying it was tantamount to cheating the people.
On March 10, the former Democrat MP said in an interview at the party's headquarters that Mr Chatchawal had influence over the NLA chairman.
On March 12 Mr Vachara also said on a television programme on TV Channel News 18 that Mr Chatchawal pushed for an inflated budget and persecuted 18 parliament officials. Later on March 13, Mr Vachara, on the same television programme, again accused Mr Chatchawal of acting as a "big boss" in the NLA.
Mr Chatchawal complained that the accusations ruined his reputation and caused him damage. He asked the court to punish Mr Vachara under Sections 326 and 328 of the Criminal Code, and sought one million baht in damages from him.
The court found Mr Vachara guilty as charged, reasoning that what he said could not be construed as fair criticism.
The court initially sentenced Mr Vachara to four years in prison and a fine of 480,000 baht, and ordered him to pay Mr Chatchawal 500,000 baht compensation plus 7.5% annual interest.
The court also ordered him to publish the judgement in the Thai Rath and Daily News newspapers for three consecutive days.
The jail sentence was then commuted to two years and eight months, suspended for two years, and the fine to 380,000 baht.
Mr Vachara said he would take the matter to the Appeal Court. In speaking out, he had been protecting the best interests of the public, he said.