KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo was sentenced by a Bangkok court today to three years’ jail for attempting to blackmail his former employer PetroSaudi International (PSI).

A report by The Star Online quoted court officials as saying that the 49-year-old former PSI director was ordered to begin his sentence from his date of arrest on June 22.

The report also said that Justo would have to serve out his full sentence in a Thai prison.

According to the news portal, the court reduced the original sentence of six years’ jail to three after considering Justo’s guilty plea.

When contacted, Justo’s lawyer Pranot Kalanuson told The Star Online that he will consult with his client on whether to appeal the sentence.

Justo has 30 days to file the appeal.

The former PSI director was charged under Section 338 of the Thai Penal Code, which carries a jail sentence of between one and 10 years, and a fine of between THB2,000 and THB20,000, The Star Online’s report said.

Justo, who was arrested at his home in Koh Samui on June 22, is believed to be the source of leaked documents on PSI’s US$1.2 billion (RM4.51 billion) joint-venture with Malaysian investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that purportedly suggest that hundreds of millions were siphoned out.

According to past reports, Justo had attempted to blackmail and extort 2.5 million Swiss Francs (about RM10 million) from PSI over the release of these purportedly incriminating documents.

Justo later admitted to the blackmail charges to the Thai police and provided information on the data from PSI that he had stolen when he left the firm in 2011.

According to Justo in an interview last month by Singapore’s Straits Times, the documents were eventually given to two groups – Sarawak Report’s Clare Rewcastle-Brown and her “IT” guy, and a “Malaysian businessman” and his colleague.

After the ST’s report was published, The Edge Media Group’s Datuk Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat confessed to misleading Justo by promising him US$2 million (RM7.6 million) payment in exchange for the documents.