POLICE YESTERDAY revealed information they claimed proved a network of people set up evidence that backed former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot’s claim of innocence in a 2005 fatal hit-and-run accident.

Police deputy spokesman Kritsana Pattanacharoen said police would sue members of the network for compensation for tarnishing the police force’s image if their involvement is proved illegal.

Police Inspector-General Pol General Panya Mamen said police found that after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, a group of seven people in late 2013 brought a man to the Nakhon Phanom’s Renu Nakhon Police Station maintaining that he was actually the driver of the pick-up truck involved in the accident. The unidentified man was not Sap Wapi, another man who has since confessed to being the driver in the fatal accident.

Officers told the group that the case was not in that precinct’s jurisdiction and reported the incident to the Nakhon Phanom provincial police office.

Later the group, in a separate event, brought the man for an unnamed police colonel to question him, Panya said.

Panya said other inconsistencies were found by Provincial Police Region 4 investigators who checked the ownership of the pickup truck with the licence plate “Bor Khor 56 Mukdahan”. Sap later claimed to have driven the pick-up, which killed elderly bicyclist Lua Phorbumrung in 2005.

Panya said, however, that Sap’s name was not on the vehicle’s registration documents between 2004 and 2009.

Police have already obtained information about members of the network and have interviewed the first man who confessed to being the driver. He said police were investigating how the network members might benefit from Jomsap’s exoneration and “all would be clearer” in a couple of days.

February hearings

Panya said he instructed the assistant to the national police chief, Pol Lt-General Manu Mekmok, to join yesterday’s meeting of the police team investigating the new evidence that had been cited in calls for a retrial.

Panya claimed the group had consulted with a former senator who had warned them not to proceed with their plan as it would be illegal to give false information to authorities, including police and the court.

Former Mukdahan senator Pol Lt-Colonel Jit Sriyohamukdathanapong said he was approached by 10 people seeking his advice and legal aid on behalf of Jomsap, who was at the time in prison and facing a serious disciplinary probe. Jit said he told them he could not help because the Supreme Court had already rendered a ruling.

The 54-year-old former Sakhon Nakhon teacher was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for reckless driving causing Lua’s death. She was granted a royal pardon in April 2015 after serving 18 months behind bars.

Permanent Secretary for Justice Ministry Chanchao Chaiyanukit has instructed officials not to engage in arguments about the case to prevent inter-agency conflicts and added that it would be up to the court’s discretion whether the case would be reopened.

He said the ministry’s Justice Fund would provide Jomsap with legal-aid expenses for the witness hearings to be held between February 8 and 10.

The Justice Fund will also help to mediate a separate legal dispute over a loan repayment between Jomsap and the teachers’ saving cooperative.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Justice Ministry Pol Colonel Dusadee Arayawuth said the ministry would present three new witnesses and evidence at the hearings to prove Jomsap’s innocence and convince the court to order a retrial. He said the witnesses and evidence were credible and had not been presented to the court previously.

Department of Special Investigation chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said his agency yesterday received a request from the Justice Ministry for a witness-protection detail for Jomsap. He assigned a panel to determine if Jomsap’s case fitted the criteria for protection.