PHETCHABURI: One of two inmates who escaped from the provincial prison during flooding last week was arrested, and said he felt forced to string along with his friend's jailbreak plan.
Police arrested Ekachai Klueabkaeo, a 36-year-old native of Phrae province, in a forest in tambon Tha Mai Ruak in Tha Yang district Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Ekachai said after his arrest that he had not planned to escape, but felt obliged to follow his inmate buddy Tawatchai Maliyam because they had become close friends during their incarceration.
Mr Ekachai said his friend told him that if he did not join in, he would be punished for the jailbreak anyway - because authorities knew that the two spent time together.
Mr Ekachai was jailed pending his trial for alleged motorcycle theft and Mr Tawatchai, a Phetchaburi native aged 33, was behind bars pending trial on drug abuse charges.
They escaped from the Phetchaburi prison last Friday as prison authorities ordered inmates to make sandbags to protect the compound, which was at that time surrounded by 70-centimetre-deep floodwater.
The two climbed up a pile of sand and escaped over the prison wall topped with barbed wire. Mr Tawatchai remained at large on Wednesday.
