Nakhon Phanom: Police pressed charges against school director Saneh Suphan yesterday in connection with a decade-old hit-and-run case involving a female former teacher and an alleged scapegoat, according to a source.
Mr Saneh denied any wrongdoing when questioned but police went ahead and charged him with providing false information to investigators and false testimony in court in the case against Jomsap Saenmuangkhot, who spent 18 months in jail for driving a car in 2005 that allegedly struck and killed an elderly cyclist.
Jomsap was released by royal pardon and subsequently sought a retrial claiming another man was behind the wheel at the time.
The Supreme Court recently rejected her retrial bid citing a lack of evidence.
Prosecutors believe the man was a hired scapegoat.
Mr Saneh faces additional charges for being involved with a criminal association, said the source, adding the suspect has been released on bail.
The Nakhon Phanom provincial police have now summoned 13 people, including eight already charged in the scapegoat case, for questioning.
Ms Jomsap is among the eight people charged for their role in the alleged conspiracy to clear her name.
The others include her husband Niran, a director of Dan Muang Kham Health Promoting Hospital in Sakon Nakhon, and Ms Jomsap’s close friend Suriya Nualcharoen.
The suspects are accused of colluding to fabricate evidence to support the retrial bid.
Seven officers with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) were also questioned at the Provincial Police Region 4 in Khon Kaen over their role in recording witnesses’ statements in the retrial bid, said Pol Maj Gen Thanasak Ritthidetphaibul, deputy chief of the regional police.
A second DSI team will be questioned today, he said. Not all are being treated as suspects, however, he added.