A defendant in the CentralWorld arson case says he has been mistaken for someone else who police say was involved in torching the building.
Saichol Phaebua, 30, told the Criminal Court he was not at any anti-government demonstration on May 19, 2010 when the Abhisit government's crackdown on red shirt protesters led to the torching of the department store.
Police arrested four people on arson charges, two adults and two youths. The two adults _ Mr Saichol and 28-year-old Pinit Channarong _ are fighting the charges in court while the two other defendants were acquitted by the Juvenile Court in December last year.
The two adults were in court yesterday but only Mr Saichol testified. Mr Pinit earlier denied his involvement in the arson.
Mr Saichol told the court he was selling music CDs on the 6th floor of the Imperial Ladprao department store on May 19 when the CentralWorld store was set ablaze. The fire caused billions of baht in damage.
Police arrested Mr Saichol at Sanam Luang roughly a month later based on a photograph of the suspected arsonists.
Mr Saichol, who said he was illiterate, told the court he had been sleeping at Sanam Luang for more than 15 years as he used to sell drinking water in the area.
He decided to earn extra money by selling CDs at the Imperial department store about 10 days before the mall was set on fire, but he always returned to sleep at Sanam Luang, Mr Saichol said.
He denied ever serving as a security guard for the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). The prosecution provided evidence that he signed a document acknowledging he was the person in the arrest warrant.
Mr Saichol said the concession was forced. "I cannot read. I was assaulted so I wrote down my name. I did not write the sentence: 'I would like to confess that the above-mentioned messages are true'," he said. "That was written by the Chanasongkram police, not by me."
He claimed police kicked him and dragged him into a pickup truck. He was handcuffed and denied access to a lawyer while detained by Chanasongkram police.
"They said if I did not sign my name, I would be sent to the military. I did not want any more pain," he said.
Mr Saichol said he was not the man in the photo attached to the confession. The man in the police's photo does not have tattoos while he has many on his arms and ankles, which would be visible if he was photographed in the same position. The next defence hearing is set for Monday.