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Published on January 21, 2008

"I was in a taxi and the driver locked the door to prevent me from escaping. He wanted to take me to the police.

"Some teenagers in the neighbourhood also watched and stalked me in the hope of getting the Bt1 million reward. I couldn't stay home or go to work because everyone was bent on catching me for the police. I had to get my policeman relative to get me out of there.

  "Life was torture," Pratya Preechawet recalled after nearly one year of living in fear having being accused of being one of the Seacon Square bombers on New Year's Eve, 2007.

He revealed in a recent interview that he planned to consult the Lawyers' Council of Thailand this week in his lawsuit against the Royal Thai Police for Bt50 million for lost livelihood and tarnished reputation.

The National Human Right's Commission (NHRC) on January 7 concluded that police action in the case violated Pratya's and his friend Yutthapong Kiti Sriworaphan's human rights and integrity.

The NHRC also cited that the New Year bomb investigation chief General Patcharawat Wongsuwan's comment about insufficient evidence against the duo, the pair's appeal and actions after learning they were wanted and the request for the court to cancel their arrest warrants led the NHRC to believe the pair were innocent.

The NHRC also ruled that the police must compensate the two for the damage they have done to their reputations.

Pratya, who resembled the bomber suspect, was captured by the Bangkok shopping mall's security camera. Pratya was the prime suspect until it was later concluded that police had made a mistake and he was innocent.

The stigma of being a suspected bomber also ruined his musical career, because the record company revoked his contract before Pratya's album was launched. His piano teaching CDs that were about to be published also flopped, his music studio-for-rent business collapsed and all activities with Seacon Square were terminated, he said.

A friend's attempt to have Pratya teach music to children on Sundays at the mall after being unemployed for a long time, failed, as word of mouth spread that he was a suspected bomber prompting the students' parents to cancel the class, he added.

Since becoming the suspect, Pratya has only travelled within a 100-200 metre radius from where he has been staying during the last 11 months, he said.

"Until now, I didn't dare to go outside and would only drive wearing sunglasses, and dash in and out for necessary errands," he said, adding that he had only been to Seacon Square three times since the news broke that he was the bomber suspect.

Pratya did not even dare throw garbage into a public bin but to carry it in his pocket to dispose of at home, he said. Life was so terrible that even a food stall vendor refused to sell him drinking water.

Pratya said he had to go to hospital once a week for a heart condition resulting from immense stress out of fear of being killed. "The reason I'm still alive without working is because I have eight siblings to help provide me with money for food because I used to be the family's breadwinner," he said.

He recalled that in his previous attempt to sue the police, some officers advised him not to have conflicts with police and it appeared that progress on his case was being stalled intentionally.

Pratya said he was told that the public prosecutor had signed the case dismissal against him and submitted it to the Royal Thai police on August 20 last year. His status remained as a bomb suspect despite the police press conference that announced he was not the culprit on April 22 last year, he said.

Pratya said although the NHRC ruled the police must "cure" the damage done to him, he had not yet received any compensation. Talking to senior officials inside police headquarters, Pratya - who had to borrow money to bail himself out in the bomb case - was told they had no compensation for him and his failed business ventures were his own fault.

Disappointed, he decided to sue for compensation. The January 7 NHRC conclusion gave him hope and he was eager to find a lawyer to represent him in the lawsuit. After facing rejections from lawyers too afraid to represent him, Pratya eventually found a lawyer and plans to bring all the information and evidence to consult with the Lawyers' Council of Thailand next week.

Despite the hefty price of Bt50 million, Pratya said he doesn't expects to get that much compensation because the real damages should be about Bt2 million - if it excluded his lost livelihood, good reputation and future opportunities.

"I don't care how much I get," he said, adding his lawsuit was a call for justice for what he had lost from the shoddy work by the police, and vowed to keep fighting in court until the court rules that he was innocent.

"After that, my life should be back to normal," he said, adding that he and his wife had separated for two months now because she was embarrassed by the accusation. He also expressed hope that his two-year-old son would not be affected by what he did not commit in the future.

"I'm not angry with the police, but I feel sad knowing that in their hearts that I was not the guy, but they continued to proceed for fear of losing face," he said.

Many officers told him on the day he turned himself in that they had made a mistake and even thought he was the southern insurgent Thawalsak Paenae, until they got a closer look at him to confirm he was not the same person.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Jate Mongkolhattee, one of the officers investigating the nine New Year's Eve bombing cases, said that Pratya could file a lawsuit against the Royal Thai Police and the court battle would proceed because the police maintain they did everything by the law.

Saying he had not seen the details of Pratya's lawsuit yet, Jate said he believed the officers' actions were not human rights violations and if Pratya thought they had damaged him, he could sue.

Jate said the investigation into the nine bombs in Bangkok and the adjacent province of Nonthaburi was not progressing at the moment.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation