The Samut Prakarn provincial court Tuesday sentenced a close aide to ex-pm Thaksin Shinawatra to six years in jail and fined him Bt12,000 after finding him guilty of embezzlement and fraud for his failure to deliver a Bt200-million rice shipment to Iran.

The defendant, 50-year-old Apichat Chansakunporn, alias Sia Pieng, managing director of President Agri Co Ltd, and a close Thaksin aide, was prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney-General on embezzlement charges.

Read more: The Nation