Former Buri Ram

MP Panawatr Liang-pongpan and six other people including senior local politicians and several of Panawatr's relatives were yesterday each given seven-year prison terms for dredging laterite in a protected area without permission.

Laterite is a clay used in road-making.

The seven-time Democrat Party MP was convicted of "stealing government property at night and taking it away using land transport" - an offence more serious and carrying a heavier penalty than common theft.

The seven were also ordered to pay more than Bt22 million for the laterite they jointly excavated from a protected plot in Ban Jik Noi in Khoo Mueng district to the local Agriculture Land Reform office.

The other six are Sawaeng (Panawatr's brother), Sudjai (Panawatr's wife), Thong (Sawaeng's wife), Dao Tobram (a deputy chief of the Khoo Mueng Tambon Administrative Organisation), Sanan Dermthamram (an assistant kamnan) and Chaowalit Singhachai, chairman of the Tambon Administrative Organisation assembly. Panawatr and the remaining six said they would appeal the case and had been released on bail of Bt120,000 each.

One of the defendants - Budget Construction Limited Partnership - which was represented by

Kard Luadthaisong, was acquitted on grounds of inadequate evidence.

Hundreds of villagers in Khoo Mueng district later presented garlands to prosecutor Tharongsak Hongkhunthod.

According to the verdict, Panawatr and the six convicts using trucks and heavy machinery, excavated more than 458 million cubic metres of laterite two years ago from 141 rai of land that belonged to the Agricultural Land Reform Office.

Only Panawatr was indicted before the trial began, but a regional public prosecutors' office later decided to indict the seven other defendants, including the acquitted firm, after police produced more evidence against them.