Ex-teacher’s fight for exoneration ends in imprisonment

[snoop1130]

Ex-teacher’s fight for exoneration ends in imprisonment

By The Nation

 

Jomsap Saenmuangkhot

 

A former teacher once praised for her fight against injustice in the country was sentenced to eight years in jail for perjury by a provincial criminal court.

 

The sentence by the court in Nakhon Phanom province saw Jomsap Saenmuangkhot return to jail after having sentenced to three years and two months in 2013 for hitting and killing a 74-year-old cyclist while driving her pickup in the province’s Renunakhon district in 2011.

 

She did not have to serve the whole jail term and was freed after a year and a half in prison when she received a royal pardon.

 

In 2015, she submitted a petition to the Justice Ministry to exonerate her as allowed by an Act, claiming she was not the driver of the vehicle that had killed the cyclist.

 

Her legal team arranged for a man named Sap Wapi to confess to the crime. An Appeals Court agreed to consider her petition.

 

The Justice Ministry then actively helped her fight her case. However, Sap later admitted that he had lied and had claimed responsibility for the fatal accident only in the hope of getting paid by a friend of Jomsap.

 

The public initially rallied behind her, considering her the face of injustice in the country. However, a large number of netizens who followed her case on a daily basis raised many questions about Sap’s confession.

 

The Nakhon Phanom Appeals Court on November 17, 2017 rejected Jomsap’s request for a retrial, and dismissed her plea for exoneration, saying there was no new evidence and upheld the earlier verdict.

 

Jomsap and her team were then charged with filing false information to police and the court and the case was submitted to public prosecutors in December 2017.

 

A member of Jomsap’s team, her former teacher colleague Suriya Nuancharoen, was sentenced to seven years and nine months in jail for hiring Sap while three other members were sentenced to jail for two years and two months.

 

Sap had earlier been sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison and his wife, who had also claimed her husband was the driver, got a one year and nine months sentence.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30365306

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-06

[SammyT]

Rookie move. She should have just said the truck was being driven by a friend who has since died whose name she cant remember. Apparently that's a watertight explanation around these parts...

[ChipButty]

Thats what I call justice

[kingkenny]

What was the point? She had already served her time and got early release. 

[rkidlad]

Round these parts; Never. Ever. Underestimate. Face

Edited March 6, 2019 by rkidlad

[monkeycu]

This is just the type of teacher Thailand does not require.

Just loose the key to her cell and let the population breath easier

[mercman24]

wow a teacher without a brain, how dumb is she. not Hi-So enough, good try love

[Moonlover]

A case that really proves the truth of that old adage.

 

'Let sleeping dogs lie'.

[from the home of CC]

greedy, good outcome

[stanleycoin]

1 hour ago, kingkenny said:

What was the point? She had already served her time and got early release. 

Classic,  saving face stupidity,  i would say. 

Back to jail girl. 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by stanleycoin

[Artisi]

2 hours ago, SammyT said:

Rookie move. She should have just said the truck was being driven by a friend who has since died whose name she cant remember. Apparently that's a watertight explanation around these parts...

it works 100% for watches, not sure about driving offences  ...

[Artisi]

Face at any cost, she now understands the cost. 

[Geoffggi]

14 hours ago, kingkenny said:

What was the point? She had already served her time and got early release. 

Saving Face

[connda]

Life is so much simpler when you take responsibility for your actions. 

[gk10002000]

16 hours ago, kingkenny said:

What was the point? She had already served her time and got early release. 

Sure seems like a bad bet on her part.  Maybe if the original verdict gets fully over turned she can get off some sort of blacklist, or not have to list the offense on a job application, or something like that.  I am assuming the Royal Pardon does not fully exonerate her, it just gets her out of the sentence

[robblok]

1 minute ago, gk10002000 said:

Sure seems like a bad bet on her part.  Maybe if the original verdict gets fully over turned she can get off some sort of blacklist, or not have to list the offense on a job application, or something like that.  I am assuming the Royal Pardon does not fully exonerate her, it just gets her out of the sentence

If the conviction was turned over then she was fired for no reason and would have gotten her job back and a lot of compensation. Now she is blacklisted and could not get her job back. It was real important for her and the compensation she would have gotten would be quite big.

[Jane Dough]

Several posters on here seem to have a problem with the term 'perjury'. 

 

She lied in court and got eight years. 

 

That is why she is going back to jail.

 

Rooster

[JAG]

Out of interest, what proportion of that sentence would she be likely to serve?

 

In the UK, for example, I imagine she would be unlikely to actually serve more than half in prison. How does it work here?

[hotchilli]

20 hours ago, kingkenny said:

What was the point? She had already served her time and got early release. 

Thainess... 

[Neeranam]

20 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Round these parts; Never. Ever. Underestimate. Face

How true!

[stud858]

Drive real slow. No matter what. I'm a hawk on the road. Always got three eyes on what's ahead of me. 

I understand why people speed off after an accident.

[lamyai3]

On 3/7/2019 at 1:57 PM, JAG said:

How does it work here?

A reduced sentence usually applies in the case of having pleaded guilty, not exactly the case here.