The Appeal Court has upheld a lower court's ruling sentencing former Palang Pracharath Party MP Pareena Kraikupt to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, and a fine of 66,666 baht, in a defamation suit filed by Progressive Movement spokeswoman Pannika Wanich.
The ruling was read out at the Criminal Court on Tuesday morning.
In the suit, Ms Pannika, then spokeswoman of the Future Forward Party (FFP), accused Ms Pareena, then a Palang Pracharath MP for Ratchaburi, of posting a message on Facebook on Aug 4, 2019 implying that she and then FFP leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit were linked to a series of bombings in Bangkok and the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in August 2019.
Ms Pareena’s Facebook post was false and caused damage to the plaintiff, Ms Pannika declared in her suit.
The Criminal Court sentenced Ms Pareena to one year in jail and a fine of 100,000 baht. The court commuted the sentence by one-third to eight months in jail and a fine of 66,666 baht because the defendant gave a useful statement. As she had never been jailed before, the court suspended her prison term for two years. She appealed.
Ms Pareena arrived at the court on Tuesday to hear the ruling.
The Appeal Court upheld the lower’s court judgement.
Ms Pareena lost her seat as a government MP after the Supreme Court in April disqualified her from politics for life over her illegal use of land in a forest reserve in her home province of Ratchaburi.