Court hits Democrat with jail term in defamation case

The Criminal Court, meanwhile, sentenced two demonstrators to three and half years in jail for joining a protest led by United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in 2009. They were charged with unlawful assembly and invading state property. 

In a press conference in September 2011, Chawanon accused Surapong of having a hand in removing members of the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Border Committee for Cambodia’s benefit. 

The Criminal Court found Chawanon guilty of defamation and sentenced him to two years in jail and a fine of Bt100,000 before suspending the jail term as he did not have any criminal records. 

However, the Appeal Court overturned the first court’s verdict, saying Chawanon did not confirm that the plaintiff had caused any damage to the country, but just questioned his actions for the sake of transparency. 

 The Supreme Court yesterday overturned this verdict, saying the accusation suggested otherwise and hence found the defendant guilty. Chawanon is also required to publish the court’s verdict in newspaper for no less than seven days. 

Meanwhile, the court sentenced two UDD protesters for allegedly invading the Interior Ministry’s compound during the red-shirt protest in April 2009 in order to stop then-PM Abhisit Vejjajiva from implementing the emergency decree. 

The court found them guilty of invading state property and assembling unlawfully to incite unrest, even though the defendants claimed they had no such intentions. However, since there were no witnesses to confirm their guilt, the court reduced the jail sentence from three and a half years to two years and four months.

The duo were taken to Remand Prison, with one awaiting temporary release on bail.