Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to two years in jail for launching an illegal government lottery over a decade ago.

The Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against politicians ruled the former prime minister guilty of involvement in running the illegal two- and three-digit lottery which allegedly incurred some 53.8 million US dollars in losses between 2003 and 2006.

Thaksin was among a total of four persons accused of involvement in the illegal government lottery and sentenced to two years in jail each.

However, the jail sentence for the three others, including former Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Rattanakorn, was suspended.

The former prime minister never showed up in court trials or had any lawyer handle the case in his defense after he has left the country in self-exile overseas since 2008.

Previously, the court sentenced Thaksin to two years in jail in 2008 for having a conflict of interest after his ex-wife won a bidding contest to buy a state-owned land plot in inner Bangkok while he was prime minister in 2003.

The 10-year statute of limitations of the case expired in October last year.