Former People’s Party MP jailed two years for showing fake military draft certificate
Thailand’s Criminal Court has sentenced former People’s Party MP Jirat Thongsuwan to two years in prison for using a forged military draft results certificate and uploading false information online.
The Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a former People’s Party MP to two years in jail after convicting him of displaying a fake certificate of military draft results.
The court found Jirat Thongsuwan, a former People’s Party MP for Chachoengsao, guilty of using a forged official document and uploading false information to a computer system.
It handed down a two-year prison term and said there was no reason to suspend the sentence or grant probation.
Jirat was seeking release on bail while appealing the ruling to the Court of Appeal.
Prosecutors alleged that he forged a military draft results certificate in early January 2024 and posted it on social media on January 25, 2024.
They said he forged the document to claim he had completed the draft process in 2012 and avoided conscription after drawing a black card in the lottery.
Prosecutors also alleged that he uploaded the fake certificate to a computer system on January 25, 2024, and showed it on a YouTube news channel to deceive the public into believing he had completed the conscription process.
Army officials from the Territorial Defence Command filed a complaint with police against Jirat on May 8, 2024.
Jirat maintained his innocence, but the court gave weight to the testimony of six army officers who appeared as prosecution witnesses during the trial. Jirat was the only defence witness.
