Jailed Redshirt Leader’s Defamation Prison Term Reduced

BANGKOK — A prominent Redshirt leader will serve a year in prison for defamation after the Supreme Court reaffirmed his conviction Thursday morning.

While the court rejected Jatuporn Prompan’s final appeal of his 2009 conviction for making libelous remarks about Democrat Party leader and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, it also halved his original sentence of two years to a year in jail.

Jatuporn was previously convicted in 2015 for a speech in which he accused Abhisit of ordering soldiers to kill Redshirt supporters earlier that year at a protest in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district.

Jatuporn, 52, leads the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), a Redshirt umbrella organization.

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Abhisit filed defamation charges against Jatuporn in response. Court of First Instance and Appeal Court formerly sentenced him Jatuporn to two years in jail. The Supreme Court today reduced the sentence to one year in prison because he confessed.

Jatuporn has been in jail on separate charges since July. Given the ruling, he’s expected to remain behind bars until July 2018, pending the outcomes of other criminal cases against him.

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