The Criminal Court today sentenced Palang Pracharath MP Sira Jenjaka to one year in jail, and stripped him of his electoral rights for 20 years, for standing in the 2019 general election while knowing he was not qualified to do so.
The court agreed with public prosecutors, who accused Sira, 61, of violating the electoral law, which prohibits a person convicted in a criminal case from standing for election to the House of Representatives.
Sira had been sentenced to four months in jail on a fraud charge in 1995.
Nonetheless, he stood in the February 2019 election and was elected as an MP for Bangkok.
Subsequently, the Constitutional Court ruled that his MP status had ended on March 24th, 2019, as he was not qualified to contest the election.
