A Thai court has sentenced former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to two years in prison over his handling of a state lottery program he initiated while in office more than a decade ago.

His conviction Thursday by a branch of Supreme Court was for malfeasance, for carrying out a policy judged to be in violation of the law or official regulations.

Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and has been absent from Thailand since 2008, when he fled to avoid serving a two-year prison term on a conflict of interest conviction.

He was sentenced in April to three years' imprisonment for ordering Thailand's Export-Import Bank to make a loan to Myanmar which was used to pay a satellite communications company then controlled by him and his family.