‘Joe Ferrari’ informs court he does not want to appeal verdict
The family of the former Nakhon Sawan police station chief on Thursday informed the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases that he wants to waive his right to appeal against a primary court ruling.
The mother of Pol Colonel Thitisan Utthanaphon, alias “Joe Ferrari”, asked the court to issue an order so he could start his prison sentence without waiting for any ruling from the appeals or supreme courts.
On June 8, the primary court sentenced Thitisan and five other cops to life imprisonment and another to five years in jail after convicting them of torturing a drug suspect to death last year.
The court held Thitisan and the five responsible for the death of Jirapong Thanapat, a drug suspect who was detained at the Muang police station from August 4 to 6 last year before he died of suffocation.
The case made headlines when well-known lawyer Sittha Biabungkerd exposed a video clip of Thitisan and five other police officers taking part in covering Jirapong’s head with a black garbage bag in the police station. The clip showed Jirapong was chocked with the plastic bag until he collapsed into unconsciousness before the police officers rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Thitisan’s mother Chantha said her son felt remorse for what he had done so he would accept the ruling without appealing against it.
Thitisan’s younger sister said her brother wanted to take responsibility for his actions so he preferred that his prison sentence commence immediately and would later pay compensation to the family of the victim as agreed earlier.
Sittha took to Facebook on Thursday afternoon to state that he was sceptical.
“I don’t believe Joe really has remorse because he made intimidating statements against me from inside his jail cell last month,” Sittha claimed.
“He said he was jailed because I exposed the video clip. He decided not to appeal against the ruling and to provide compensation because he wanted the case finalised as soon as possible so that he would later be eligible for a royal pardon,” the lawyer said.
Sittha went as far as to say that he expected Thitisan to be freed after serving a prison term of only 5-7 years.
“Others may serve up to 15 years but for Joe he will be jailed for only five to seven years,” Sittha added.