Police will charge 14 officials of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) with dereliction of duty in the perjury case against hit-and-run teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot.
Pol Maj Gen Thanasak Ritthidechpaibul, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 4, Khon Kaen, said on Thursday that police had summonsed 14 DSI officials for interrogation in the case, which involves an alleged conspiracy to clear former teacher Jomsap of a conviction for a fatal hit-and-run.
Jomsap, 55, was found guilty of reckless driving causing death after a pickup truck struck a bicycle, killing 75-year-old Lua Pobamrung, in Renu Nakhon district of Nakhon Phanom on March 11, 2005. The Supreme Court sentenced her to three years and two months in jail in 2013.
She was released after serving one year and six months under a royal amnesty and sought a retrial of her case in 2015 through the Justice Ministry. The DSI officials were assigned to help her. On Nov 17 the Supreme Court dismissed her claim due to poor supporting evidence. Police then started the perjury case, in which other people were reportedly paid to come forward and claim they had been driving the car, not Jomsap.
Pol Maj Gen Thanasak said the interrogation committee of Provincial Police Region 4 found dereliction of duty by the 14 DSI officials in a way that caused damage.
The regional police office would propose disciplinary action and further legal action by the National Anti-Corruption Commission, he said.
The 14 officials are DSI special case specialists, interrogators and legal affairs officials, as well as some police officers. The case also includes 11 civilians, including Jomsap and other people accused of being or hiring false witnesses.
It was reported that if the retrial had been successful, Jomsap would have been reinstated in the civil service, received her former salary and compensation for the period when she was in jail, and would have been eligible for retirement benefits. She had been earning about 60,000 baht a month as a teacher.
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