The Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld the one-year prison sentence given to four leaders of the former People's Alliance for Democracy for breaking into and damaging the premises of state-run NBT TV station in 2008.
The court of first instance was told that five PAD leaders - Somkiat Pongpaiboon, Anchalee Paireerak, Puwadol Songprasert, Yutthiyong Limlertwathee and Chitiphat Limthongkul - led 80 other demonstrators in forcing their way into the National Broadcasting Service of Thailand (NBT) premises on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road on Aug 25-26, 2008.
At the time, the PAD was leading protests demanding the ouster the Samak Sundaravej government backed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The PAD demonstrators were armed with guns, knives, axes, golf clubs, wooden sticks and slingshots when they marched from Makawan Rangsan bridge and other places to the NBT TV station and broke into the premises. They smashed doors and windows and damaged electrical and telephone systems and computers and camera control systems.
They also damaged the transmitting facilities and forced staff to leave the premises.
The five PAD leaders were charged with illegal assembly and other offences under Sections 210, 215, 309, 358, 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code.
On Feb 12, 2020, the Criminal Court found them guilty and sentenced Somkiat to two years in jail and Ms Anchalee, Mr Puwadol, Mr Yutthiyong and Mr Chitiphat to a one-year jail term without suspension.
The five defendants were released on bail, pending appeal.
Somkiat died in November 2021. His name was removed from the trial case.
On Tuesday, the Appeal Court upheld the one-year jail sentence without suspension given the other four defendants.
They immediately filed for release on bail while seeking to forward the case to the Supreme Court.
The bail requests were being considered.
In 2018 the Supreme Court sentenced the other 80 PAD demonstrators held over the NBT raid to 3-8 months in prison.
