NARATHIWAT - A court in this southern province has sentenced a garage owner to five years in prison for dismantling an Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) pickup truck used in the shooting of a Prachachat Party MP.

The Narathiwat Provincial Court on Friday initially sentenced Sunthorn Phrompakdee, who runs a vehicle repair garage in Tak Bai district, to 10 years. It reduced the sentence by half after he confessed and gave useful testimony. The prison term was not suspended.

Sunthorn was accused of dismantling the Isoc pickup truck used in the March 20 attack on Kamonsak Leewamoh, an MP and prominent human rights lawyer.

Adilan Ali-ishor, a lawyer with the Muslim Attorney Centre, told Thai PBS that a team of lawyers attended the hearing as observers.

An initial 200,000 baht had been deposited with the court as compensation related to the dismantling of the vehicle. The defendant was expected to seek bail and appeal the ruling, Mr Adilan said.

Police have alleged that gunmen travelling in an Isoc pickup truck opened fire on a vehicle carrying Mr Kamonsak in Bacho district of Narathiwat as he returned home from Hat Yai airport. The MP escaped unharmed, but his driver and police escort were seriously wounded.

Investigators later found dismantled parts of the pickup truck at a junkyard in Tak Bai district, leading to allegations that the vehicle had been taken apart to conceal its ownership.

A former naval reconnaissance officer arrested in April subsequently admitted to being the gunman in the attack, according to police.

But he and four others who also confessed involvement were said to have given conflicting accounts about who actually ordered the attack, investigators said.

Mr Kamonsak is well known for representing people affected by the insurgency in the three southern border provinces as well as unfair treatment by authorities, which raised suspicions about who might have wanted him silenced.

The fact that an Isoc-owned vehicle was involved and three of the five suspects had military backgrounds further fuelled public concern.

Isoc has a huge presence in southern Thailand, with an estimated 60,000 personnel, mostly seconded from the armed forces and police.