Jobi, an undocumented ethnic Karen peasant who resided in remote part of Kanchanaburi, had been charged with the riddling a school bus full of students with an M16 automatic rifle.

Jobi initially confessed to the killings but later retracted his statement as questions and doubt began to mount.

Parents of the school children, as well as the local community, accused the police of trying to close the murder case at the expense of the truth. They also called on the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to investigate a local police who they believed concocted the confession in order to close the case.

Jobi told reporters that he was forced by a gang of people behind smuggling of forest goods to confess to the crime or they would kill him and his wife and children.

He said the police had also promised that he would be freed if and when he confessed to the killings.

A Ratchburi provincial court acquitted him of murder in March 2004. The decision came after he had spent more than a year in jail on charges of illegal entry. The time served as considered in lieu of sentencing for illegal entry.

During his detention, Jobi became ill in what appeared to be an attempt to poison him.

The plight of this stateless peasant has prompted Her Majesty the Queen to take stateless peasant under a royal medical care sponsorship.

The Law Society of Thailand also lend assistant in trying to obtain him a citizenship.

The Nation