People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul has been found guilty of defaming former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and received a suspended two years jail term for a first offence.
The litigation stemmed from Sondhi's remarks to fellow yellow shirts in the United States in 2007. ASTV and Manager Group subsequently aired and published the comments.
In the hearing for the judicial review, the Criminal Court removed the two media outlets from a list of defendants after finding no evidence to link them to the defamation.
As plaintiff, Thaksin contended Sondhi tarnished his reputation by portraying him as a disloyal citizen of His Majesty the King. The prosecution evidence included a statement by former deputy prime minister Surakiart Sathirathai and quoted by Sondhi.
Sondhi claimed Surakiart had told him his reason for parting ways with Thaksin was because of the former PM's offensive attitude towards the monarchy.
In outlining its decision, the court said the gist of the case was whether Sondhi had quoted Surakiart's remarks to smear Thaksin.
Based on evidence submitted to the court, the defence did not deny it was aiming to expose Thaksin's involvement in offending the monarchy.
Sondhi's remarks were deemed libellous because neither the defence nor the authorities initiated legal proceedings against Thaksin who did not have a criminal record of lese majeste, the court said in its verdict.
Following the conviction, the court sentenced Sondhi and Sarocha to serve a six-month jail term each and pay a fine of Bt20,000.
As grounds for leniency, the court cited it was the pair's first offence for libel in the process of trying to uphold the monarchy. In addition to the suspended jail term, the two were obligated to publicise the guilty verdict in five newspapers, Pujadkarn, Naew Na, Daily News, The Nation and Thai Post for seven days.