Justice Ministry seeks bail for 'wrongly nabbed' twin

Justice Ministry seeks bail for 'wrongly nabbed' twin
Published: 12/05/2012 at 03:03 AM


The Justice Ministry will seek bail for Anont Ounwong whom his twin brother and mother insist was wrongly arrested and sentenced to four years in jail for a crime committed by his brother Anek.

Kasem Kanthamanee, a lawyer with the ministry's Justice Fund said yesterday the ministry would apply for bail for Anont so he could prepare to fight his case in the Supreme Court.

The ministry will contact the Central Institute of Forensic Science to help distinguish between Anont and his identical twin brother, Mr Anek.

The result will serve as new evidence for the judge to decide which one of the twins was actually involved in an attack over three years ago, Mr Kasem said.



The bail application will be submitted on Monday. An appeal against the Appeal Court's upholding of the lower court's four-year jail sentence for Anont on assault charges arising from an incident in 2009 will be filed in 10 days, he said.

Anont has served 14 months so far.

Even though Anont had signed a confession, he still had a chance to fight the case in court, Mr Kasem said. Anont's mother, Boonkerd Ounwong, 56, said her son said he signed the confession because he trusted police investigators who said he needed to sign it to complete the investigation process, assuring him that he would still be able to defend himself in court later.

Instead, Anont was jailed as a result of the signed confession, she said.

On April 19, 2009, Mr Anek was involved in a physical attack that occurred around midnight, Ms Boonkerd said.

Later his twin brother Anont was issued a traffic infringement notice in Muang district of Nakhon Pathom for failing to show police his motorcycle driving licence, she said.

When Anont reported to a police station to pay the fine, police thought he was Mr Anek because he carried his brother's social security card.

Believing they had found the assault suspect they had been seeking, they arrested Anont, Ms Boonkerd said.

Ms Boonkerd also insisted her claim that a police official asked for 500,000 baht in exchange for helping Anont was true, despite facing the threat of a lawsuit filed by the Provincial Police Region 1 following the publication of an interview in which she made the accusation.

Mr Anek returned home on May 6. When he found out Anont had being jailed for the crime he had committed, he "wanted to make it right", she said.

"I am sorry that my brother has been jailed because of my actions and I am now ready to be punished," a repentant Mr Anek said.

Assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Charamporn Suramanee said it was not too late to prove Anont's innocence in court and he guaranteed that all sides would receive justice.


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