Jomsap case Interrogation postponed
Police allow one week delay as five are ‘engaged in work in other provinces’
FIVE OFFICIALS from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) will meet police next Friday at the Provincial Police Region 4 Office to answer questions about assistance provided to former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot in her failed attempt to petition for a retrial in her hit-and-run conviction.
The five DSI officials – Chatchai Thositthiti, Pol Lt-Colonel Watcharat Chalimsuksan, Colonel Polpong Kamon-artsan, Thitinai Patikabutr and Surasak Khamwiang – were allowed a postponement yesterday because they were engaged in official work in other provinces, DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said. A deputy permanent secretary at the Justice Ministry related to the case, Pol Colonel Dusadee Arayawuth, has not been summoned so far. A Justice Ministry fact-finding committee will summon officials from the DSI, the Nakhon Phanom Justice Office, and the Legal Aid Centre for Debtors and Victims of Injustice to testify starting on Monday, a source at the ministry said. Meanwhile, police yesterday issued summons to five more people to hear charges of presenting false evidence in a police investigation, perjury and racketeering, Nakhon Phanom provincial police chief Pol Maj-General Suwicharn Yankittikul said yesterday.
The accused are: Thongres Wongsricha, Wassana Phetchthong, Thanat Suktalodpee, Rojana Sanrat and Saneh Supan. Jomsap’s former husband, Niran Saenmuangkhot, a tambon health promotion hospital director, met police on Wednesday night to hear three charges of presenting false evidence in a police investigation, perjury and racketeering, and was released temporarily.
He was brought by police yesterday to court for an application for detention and was granted release on bail, for which he offered his civil servant position and an unspecified cash deposit. A witness who supported Jomsap, Thassanee Hanpayak, who on Wednesday met police to hear charges, was brought to court for a detention order and was released on Bt100,000 bail. Police also on Wednesday summoned Sert Roopsa-art to provide information as a witness for the third time.
Jomsap’s friend Suriya Nuancharoen had brought Sert to police, with the latter claiming he had been the driver in the 2005 crash, which killed an elderly cyclist. Another suspect, Sap Wapi, later claimed to have been the driver after it was disclosed that Sert did not know how to drive. The third interrogation was meant to uncover any information that might have been missed in the earlier two questioning sessions in January, police said.
In related development, Natchapol “Mark Pitbull” Supattana, a social network celebrity, went to see police yesterday to insist he had good intentions in raising funds to help Jomsap, and he had nothing to do with an alleged plot to deceive authorities. Natchapol claimed he had believed that Jomsap was innocent of the crash and hence raised Bt1 million in donations.
He added that he did not know what Jomsap, whom he had met only three times, spent the money on. After meeting with Natchapol at the Royal Thai Police head office in Bangkok, national police deputy chief Pol General Weerachai Songmetta said case investigators would check transactions to see whether the donations that Natchapol had given to Jomsap had been spent on paying false witnesses or fabricating evidence. Source: Asia Nation
