The Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct on Tuesday sentenced Premchai Karnasuta to one year in jail for trying to bribe park rangers when he was arrested in a wildlife sanctuary in February 2018.
The court based the ruling on the testimonies of public prosecutors' witnesses that when construction tycoon Premchai, 64, was arrested, he told park rangers that if they freed him, he would give them whatever they wanted.
The court stated that the one-year sentence would be added onto a 16-month jail term handed down by a Kanchanaburi court in connection with a wildlife poaching case in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi's Thong Pha Phum district where he was arrested.
Premchai was released on bail of 200,000 baht. He said he would appeal.
Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Plc, and the three co-defendants were arrested at their unauthorised camp in the wildlife sanctuary on Feb 4 last year in possession of firearms and the carcasses of protected animals, including a rare black leopard.
