Mushroom pickers' fight for justice continues

Mushroom pickers' fight for justice continues

CSD gets vital evidence and witness testimony

Udom Sirisorn is assisted by his wife Daeng and rights activist Songkan Achariyasap as the couple arrive at the Crime Suppression Division on Tuesday. (Photo by Wassayos Ngamkham)
Udom Sirisorn is assisted by his wife Daeng and rights activist Songkan Achariyasap as the couple arrive at the Crime Suppression Division on Tuesday. (Photo by Wassayos Ngamkham)

A mushroom-picker couple who spent 20 months in prison after being convicted for illegal logging visited the Crime Suppression Division on Tuesday to give further interview and evidence aimed at clarifying the false allegation against them.

It was the couple’s second visit to the CSD headquarters in less than a week after they had asked police to put their complaint on daily records that they had received threats from officials involved in the case and urged them to quickly bring the real loggers to justice.

Udom Sirisorn, 53, and his wife Daeng, 50, met with Pol Col Suwat Sangnoom, investigative chief of CSD’s sub-division 1. They were accompanied by rights activist Songkan Achariyasapm and Somchard Matthujad, member of the National Human Rights Commission’s subcommittee. 

The couple were charged with illegal logging and were detained at Kalasin provincial prison on April 25, 2012 after forestry officials charged them with felling 700 trees over a 72-rai area of a protected forest during July 12-19, 2010.  

Prior to the meeting, Mr Songkan said he had brought a key witness and would submit a satellite image that showed the area had no 700 felled trees as stated in the officials’ daily arrest report, along with findings from the Department of Investigation Department and other concerned agencies.     

He would also submit documents from Kalasin hospital that confirmed Udom had some skull fracture, hearing problems and muscle weakness in the legs resulting from two accidents in 2008 and 2011, not from illegal logging as alleged by the forestry officials. 

Mr Songkan said national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda was interested in this case as it involved local influential figures and fabricating of false evidence. The CSD had been instructed to bring the real culprits to justice. 

Mr Somchard, also a former senior forestry official, said the arrest records initially stated that a total of 52 rai of the reserved forest had been encroached and the figures were later changed to 72. Udom and Daeng were arrested on July 12, 2010 but they were accused of committing the offence during July 12-19. The couple also possessed only a motorcycle, with no knife or logging equipment, when they were apprehended. 

“I’ve never seen a case like this in my entire career of 30 years. The facts were wrong from the bottom up, starting from the arrest report,” Mr Somchard said. 

The husband and wife were arrested on July 12, 2010 after they rode their motorcycle to Dong Ranang National Park to collect wild mushrooms. In the same area, authorities were moving in on a group of illegal loggers, who got away. Udom and Daeng also fled in fear upon learning of the raid, leaving behind their motorcycle.

Officials found the bike and traced it back to the couple, who were apprehended soon after on charges of illegal logging.

Mr Songkan said they confessed to the charges because they thought they were admitting to illegally foraging for mushrooms on a forest reserve, not to illegal logging. 

The Criminal Court sentenced them to 30 years in jail, halving the terms when they confessed. The Appeal Court upheld the ruling. 

The couple were released on bail after the Supreme Court accepted Mr Songkan’s petition to re-investigate the case.

The case has drawn much interest as the public are questioning double standards and unfair treatment in law enforcement and the justice system. It comes in stark contrast with other cases in which wealthy or influential people are alleged offenders, including those involving young and reckless drivers from rich families who killed other people on the roads.

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