A Secret History of the Bangkok Hilton by Chavoret Jaruboon & Pornchai Sereemongkonpol

Author:Chavoret Jaruboon & Pornchai Sereemongkonpol [Jaruboon, Chavoret & Sereemongkonpol, Pornchai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: prison, Thailand, bangkok, Death Row, Death Penalty, True Crime, Corruption, Biography
ISBN: 9781905379811
Publisher: Maverick Publishing Ltd
Published: 2011-08-11T15:53:58+00:00

In different interviews, Krasae revealed what had happened prior to his wrongful arrest. While being detained, he was subjected to a beating by a group of policemen.

‘They asked me to come to the police station and forced me to confess to a crime I didn’t commit. I refused and they ganged up on me. There were many of them and I don’t recall everything. I remember one police officer in particular who dealt a kick at my chest that was so vicious I fell over, my back hitting a desk behind hard. Then I was kicked in the back again and fell over face down, my head slamming onto the floor.’

Krasae went to see a doctor after the assault and X-rays confirmed that he had cracked his spine. ‘I was about to be tried by the court of first instance and I couldn’t afford any treatment. [He was a security guard, earning a meagre 3,000 baht a month at the time.] After I was sentenced to death, I was transferred from the court’s holding cell to the prison right away.’

While on death row and shackled, he got by with painkillers from the prison hospital and ointment to relax his muscles, sent in by his mother. He also claimed the assault impaired his brain functions and he became slow-witted.

He recalled the time he was on death row saying, ‘I didn’t know what to think or hope for: to be set free or to die. Drained of any will to live, I was not my own person. I thought, “If it’s my time to go, then I’ll have no choice but to go.” I wasn’t even told that another police team was reinvestigating my case to catch the real culprits. There were many kinds of people on death row. Some said they were innocent but got snared by the police who like to close cases quickly. I believe there are innocent people on death row but I don’t know how they end up there. The law should guarantee compensation for those who are wrongfully incarcerated.’

Although he is alive and free, Krasae has to live with the constant reminder of the atrocity the police inflicted upon him. ‘I still have to take medication to cope with my back pain every day. If I walk for too long, my feet go numb. I can’t sleep on my back because doing so is simply too painful and my back goes numb. I have to sleep on either side.’ He also admitted to being haunted by an intense fear of the police.

Unlike the other two men, who at the very least had homes to go to after release, Krasae’s life after prison was bleak as no one was waiting for his return. He used to live in Klongtoey with his wife, daughter and son. His wife suffered from debilitating depression after he was put behind bars, however, and tried to cope by taking to alcohol, which brought about her untimely death before he was released. His

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