High court upholds ruling for five who rigged lottery
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld an Appeal Court ruling that sentenced Narong "Klom Bangkluay" Oonpaet to six years in jail for his role in fixing the results of the government lottery on June 1, 2001.
The ruling was announced in a lawsuit filed against Somtrakul Jobkrathok, Kittichat Kulpradit, Narong, Suriyan Doungkaew and Pichai Thep-arak, who were accused of conspiring with 10 others to fix the lottery results by marking the balls so the winning numbers 11-33-11 were drawn.
With Narong and Suriyan failing to show up to hear the verdict yesterday, the court also issued arrest warrants for them.
In 2004, the criminal court sentenced each of the five defendants to six years in jail for committing public fraud and being members of a criminal gang. In 2006, the Appeal Court upheld the sentence for Narong and three others, but cut Pichai’s sentence to two years for being a member of a criminal gang.
Lawyer Pisal Wibulsilpa said Pichai had already served a year and four months in jail before being granted bail.
However, he will need to return to jail for eight months to complete his sentence. Pisal said he would also seek a pardon for Pichai.
