Senate Speaker Thiradet Meeplan was today found guilty, along with two other former ombudsmen, of malfeasance in issuing a regulation to grant themselves pay raises.
He has since been disqualified as Senate Speaker, with elections for his replacement to be held on August 6, The Nation reported.
The Criminal Court handed down two-year suspended sentences to Thiradet and Poolsup Piya-anant and a one-year-and-four-month sentence to Pramote Chotemongkol.
The three were found guilty collaborating to issue a regulation to give themselves pay raises of THB20,000 per month without authority between July 29 and September 30, 2004, when Thiradet and Poolsup were ombudsmen and Pramote was the secretary-general of the Office of Ombudsmen.
Pramote is said to have used a regulation on meeting allowances for the Constitutional Court as a guideline to draft a similar regulation for the Office of Ombudsmen.
The regulation was issued on July 30, 2004, allowing the three to receive the THB20,000 allowances for three months before they were forced to return it after the National Anti-Corruption Commission began a malfeasance probe.
The Court ruled that because the money was paid in a fixed amount on a monthly basis, it would be considered part of the salary, which the trio did not have authority to approve.
The terms were suspended because the three have no criminal records.
Deputy Senate Speaker Nikom Waiyaratphanit will take over as acting Senate speaker until the election in August.
