The amazing story of Benny Moafi: Unbreakable, Unshackled

CITY LIFE - JAMES FARRELL

Benny Moafi has been a free man now for just nine months. He spent nine years, eight months, and two weeks in various Thai prisons for a crime he says he didn't commit. He has an overwhelmingly large stock of evidence to prove his innocence and wrongful incarceration, all supported by lawyers, international human rights groups, and a faction of the Thai DSI (Department of Special Investigations).

Benny was not alone in his rage against the system. Fair Trials Intentional (formerly Fair Trials Abroad) supported his case.

Presently Benny helps other foreigners in Thai prisons. "I'm in court almost every day," he says, and his phone never stops ringing, which he picks ups and answers in different languages. "At the moment," he says, "many foreigners and Thais are wrongfully imprisoned in jail without much hope. It was that hope, some help from others, that kept me from going mad in there," he says and tells me all the horror you've heard about Thai prisons is true. The system has some good people working within it, he says, but the dark side is strong.