The Justice Ministry is helping an inmate who discovered during a chat with other prisoners that they had committed the robbery he was wrongly sentenced for several years ago.
Dussadee Arayawuthi, deputy permanent secretary for justice, told Channel 3 news on Wednesday that the ministry was compiling a file of fresh evidence along with Provincial Police Region 7 investigators.
A case will be submitted to the Criminal Court for a ruling that Kamol Phaekhiew, 48, did not commit the crime for which he was sent to prison.
Kamol was sentenced to 21 years behind bars by the Supreme Court on Sept 19, 2012 for a robbery at a house and theft of a pickup truck in tambon Plai Na in Sri Prachan district, Suphan Buri, and unauthorised possession of weapons, on March 23, 2006. Throughout his trials, Kamol insisted he was innocent.
He was sent to serve his sentence at Khao Bin prison in Muang district, Ratchaburi.
On the inside, he met a group of inmates led by Sakhon Khaophan. What he learned from a chat with them could be the first step in the former janitor at Hankha Witthayakhom School in Chai Nat getting the freedom he so yearns for.
They turned out to be the real robbers.
"I asked him how he came to be in there," inmate Sakhon recalled in an interview with Channel 3, which aired the report on Tuesday. "He said he was jailed for a robbery he did not commit.
"I asked him for the details, and he said it was in Sri Prachan. Then I asked whether it was in tambon Plai Na. And he said yes," Sakhon said.
"After listening to him, I told him we were the ones who did it," he added.
Sakhon said Kamol looked to be suffering at the time he and his friends met him.
Kamol told them that two young people, aged 7 and 11, were the witnesses presented to the court by police.
The case was handled by Sri Pachan police station. (continues below)
The letter that Sakhon Khaophan and his gang wrote to the Department of Special Investigation, about the crime that resulted in the wrong person being sent to prison. (Photo from www.krobkruakhao.com)
Sakhon and his gang members, also prisoners at Khao Bin, decided to write a letter to "the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation", telling the truth in detail.
The TV station did not report the date of the meeting at Khao Bin between Kamol and Sakhon and his friends. But it was clearly before Feb 2, 2016, as that was the date Sakhon and his friends wrote the letter to the DSI.
The DSI took up the case after receiving the letter last year, and started collecting evidence.
On Tuesday, it sent Chatchai Thosinthiti and other officials to join police of the Region 7 office in a meeting with Sakhon, Somchai Sriruedee and Ekkarath Lao-orn at Khao Bin, according to the report.
The inmates led by Sakhon gave the authorities their account of the robbery, which exactly detailed what happened on March 23, 2006, as it was earlier set down in the police case report at the time. Sakhon drew a chart showing how the robbery occurred that matched the account investigated by the DSI, Mr Chatchai said.
Sakhon, Somchai and Ekkarath were accompanied by a fourth robber, according to the record of their interrogation by authorities.
Pol Col Dussadee said the ministry needed a ruling from the court to get Kamol out of the jail, before starting a healing process for him. The process will include cash of 300 baht per day for the days he was jailed, and more.
The ministry will do its best to compensate him, including a rehabilitation plan, the senior ministry official added.
Kamol's wife Bang-orn had already asked the ministry for justice for her husband at a meeting on Aug 7, 2016.
In the document shown by Channel 3, Sakhon was the gang leader.
So why did Sakhon and his friends send the letter to help Kamol?
"Nobody wants to bring trouble on themselves," Somchai told the television station in the interview. "We really want to see him to get out and live a normal life.
"We also want people out there to know that not all prisoners are bad guys."
It was not clear what crime had led to Sakhon, Somchai and the other gang members being sent to Khao Bin.