BANGKOK: Three current Thailand Cabinet ministers lost their posts on Wednesday due to their court verdicts for jail in connection with the  2014's Bangkok shutdown and street protests which they had unlawfully orchestrated.

Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta and Deputy Transport Minister Thavorn Senniam, who received jail terms ranging from five years to seven years and four months respectively, have automatically lost their ministerial seats, according to the news reported by  Xinhua

The Criminal Court ruled a group of 39 defendants, all being former political activists attached to the now defunct People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), guilty of illicitly organising the massive anti-government protests against the government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

PDRC leader and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban was jailed for five years. Of those found guilty, 12 were given suspended sentences and six were released on bail.

The PDRC protests in 2013 and 2014 play a key role in uniting royalist and nationalist forces against a government they said was controlled by fugitive tycoon and expelled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's exiled brother. Both Shinawatras won elections by landslides. Prayuth stayed on as prime minister after the coup and retained the post after a 2019 election, which he insists was free and fair, despite opposition allegations of foul play.

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