Homepage > Thai Youth Issues > Framed student tells of 'nightmare' month in jail

Dec 17th, 2001 The Nation

Life in jail was a living nightmare for a 24-year-old Chulalongkorn University (CU) student who claims he was wrongfully accused of possessing methamphetamine.

His name was cleared only last week when the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court dropped the charges against him on grounds that the evidence supplied by police was not only insufficient but actually suspect.

Born into a middle-class family in the southern province of Pattani, Somchai Kwanjul has a record as a diligent student and has long dreamed of becoming a doctor. He attended Prince of Songkhla University's science faculty for a while but left to take university entrance examinations in pursuit of a place at one of the country's medical schools.

While he didn't get into the medical school, he made it into CU's Allied Health Sciences Faculty, to which he devoted all of his time and effort.

Somchai, who neither drank nor smoked, said his bad luck began when a non-commissioned police officer searched him "without reason" while he was on his way back to his rented apartment on September 10 last year.

"I tried to explain [that he was making a mistake]. But the officer began beating me," the student said, adding that the officer had also taken about Bt1,000 in cash from his wallet.

Somchai said he still did not know what had caused the incident. He was handcuffed and taken to Thong Lor Police Station, where he says he was physically assaulted until he signed a document confessing to possessing a methamphetamine pill.

"I was not allowed to call anyone. The police said they would handle that for me," he said.

After being locked up in the police station's holding cell for two days, Somchai was transferred to Klong Prem Central Prison, where he spent 27 days. He recalls this period as the most painful of his life, saying he had no one to turn to and no money. "As I was not allowed to make a telephone call, none of my relatives knew I was in trouble," he said.

Somchai said his first prison meal tasted so bad he vomited. His hands became swollen and inflamed after he was forced to sew leather shoes in jail.

Fortunately, he was allowed to write letters to family members in the South, who quickly alerted relatives in Nakhon Pathom, who finally bailed him out.

"While out on bail, I went to the university and told my adviser and the dean of my faculty the whole story," he said.

Associate Professor Dr Winai Dalan, dean of the allied health sciences faculty, said at first he could not believe that police officers would subject Somchai to such "harassment", but after listening to Somchai's story many times, he became convinced that the student was telling the truth.

"We decided to help him by taking the case to the Law Society of Thailand," Winai said, adding that he had initially believed the case would be resolved without any problems. However, police unexpectedly charged Somchai with another count of obstructing justice.

Winai said the student had phoned him in tears when the additional charge was filed. Somchai was thrown in jail again, until the dean used his position to bail the student out.

According to Winai, petrol-station employees and motorcycle-taxi drivers who were near the spot where Somchai was arrested at the time corroborated Somchai's version of events.

Strangely, however, none of them could later be found when a Law Society of Thailand panel sought them for questioning.

Although the charges were eventually dropped and his name cleared, Somchai still feels he was treated unfairly throughout his ordeal. However, the student said he would try to put the painful memories behind him and would not file a lawsuit against the police officers who had incriminated him.

"I have returned to my studies and received encouragement from friends and juniors at the faculty," he said. But his family will never forget, Somchai said, that people in uniform once tried to frame him.

Pongsak Bai-ngern

THE NATION