Justo withdraws appeal against jail term

In what appeared to be a surprise move, Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo today withdrew his appeal against his three-year jail sentence for blackmailing his former employer PetroSaudi International.

This was disclosed by his Thai lawyer, Worasit Piriyawiboon, after today's scheduled hearing of his application for bail pending the appeal.

Justo also withdrew his second application for bail that was to have been heard today at the Bangkok South Criminal Court.

His first application for bail of one million baht was rejected by the court on Oct 26.

Justo appeared in court this morning accompanied by eight correctional officers.

He was arrested on June 22 on the island of Koh Samui and sentenced to three years imprisonment on Aug 17 after confessing to stealing 90 gigabytes of data, which included emails, documents and other materials, from PetroSaudi International as part of an attempted blackmail.