NAKHON PHANOM: The provincial court on Monday denied a request for the release on bail of former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot to prevent any tampering with evidence or witnesses in a perjury case relating to efforts to clear her of a fatal hit-and-run conviction.
Police arrested Jomsap at her home in Sakon Nakhon province on Saturday on charges of perjury and illegal assembly relating to the alleged hiring of other people to replace her as the driver of a vehicle that hit and killed a bicyclist in Nakhon Phanom in 2005.
After detaining her for 48 hours, police sought court approval to extend her detention for the first 12-day period. Her son offered 200,000 baht as security along with a request for her temporary release, but the court rejected it.
The court said Jomsap may otherwise tamper with witnesses and evidence. It ordered corrections officials to keep a close watch on her.
Acting deputy national police chief Wirachai Songmetta said Jomsap denied all charges but her testimony was useful for the prosecution. It concerned attempts to seek a retrial of her hit-and-run case and assistance from the Department of Special Investigation and the Justice Ministry for the retrial attempt, he said.
Pol Gen Wirachai also said police might interrogate some government officials who were allegedly aware of the perjury attempt.
In the same case, the Nakhon Phanom Court on Monday released confessed perjurer Sab Wapee and his wife Jan on bail of 100,000 baht each.
Mr Sab, 61, recently turned himself in to police and said he was hired 400,000 baht to claim to be the driver who killed the bicyclist, not Jomsap.
Jomsap, 55, was earlier found guilty of reckless driving causing death after a pickup truck the court found she was driving hit a bicycle, killing 75-year-old Lua Pobamrung, in Renu Nakhon district on March 11, 2005. The Supreme Court upheld the first court's sentence of three years and two months in prison in 2013.
Following her release by a royal amnesty in April 2015, Ms Jomsap commenced wrongful conviction proceedings through the Justice Ministry.
The Supreme Court on Nov 17 dismissed the case. The court said it suspected there existed a network that hired out people to confess to crimes they did not commit, and the network had backed Jomsap's claim of wrongful conviction.
It was reported that if the retrial had been successful, Jomsap would have been reinstated in the civil service, received salaries and compensation for the period when she was in jail, and be eligible for retirement benfits. She had been earning about 60,000 baht a month as a teacher.
Police have eight suspects in the perjury case. Jomsap's husband and a witness in the hit-and-run retrial attempt have not responded to police summonses.
