The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld suspended one-year jail sentences and 50,000-baht fines handed down to three Democrat politicians for defaming former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra during a TV programme.
The three implied she dodged a parliamentary session to have a sexual liaison at a hotel.
The Supreme Court's decision was read out to former Democrat MPs Sirichok Sopha, Chavanond Intarakomalyasut and Thepthai Senapong at the Criminal Court Thursday.
The case concerned comments they made while hosting their regular Sai Lor Far programme on Feb 10 and Feb 15 of 2012. It aired on the Democrat-affiliated Bluesky station.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Appeal Court, which upheld the original judgement delivered by the Criminal Court. It rejected Yingluck's petition to withdraw her appeal against the suspension of their sentence, because the penalty had already settled upon when it was lodged.
The court ruled that comments made on the programme implied that Yingluck, who is married and has a son, had indeed skipped a Feb 8, 2012 parliamentary session to engage in an affair with a man at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok. It deemed the comments "unfair".
The court suspended the jail terms because Yingluck, as a national administrator, should have shown transparency, but had never explained the matter to the public.
Only during the trial did she reveal that she had a business meeting at the hotel with a property developer.
If that were the case, there was no reason to keep the meeting secret, the court ruled. The court said the three men had only intended to get to the bottom of the matter.
