BANGKOK, July 31 – Thailand’s Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced ruling Pheu Thai Party spokesperson Prompong Nopparit and a fellow Pheu Thai MP Kiatudom Menasawas to one year in prison for insulting the president of the Constitution Court.
The ruling follows Mr Prompong, a Pheu Thai party-list MP and Mr Kiatudom, MP for Udon Thani June 8 news conference accusing Constitution Court President Wasan Soipisut with behaving inappropriately, and violating judge’s ethics, injustice and partiality.
The charter court president filed a libel suit against the two members of parliament for insulting him and tarnishing his reputation.
The court said it found Mr Prompong and Mr Kiatudom guilty as they did not verify the accuracy of their information before holding a news conference and they intentionally expressed their views for political gain, aiming to damage Mr Pisut’s reputation.
The court therefore handed down one year jail terms for the two lawmakers and ordered them to pay fines of Bt50,000 each.
As the two were not previously convicted, the court suspended their punishment for two years and ordered them to publish the court’s verdict in three newspapers for seven days.
Mr Prompong said he accepted the court ruling but is preparing to appeal the case.
