PHUKET: Two Swedes charged with murder over a Phuket killing appeared in Phuket Provincial Court yesterday to stand trial - but entered different pleas.

Johan Sebastian Ljung pleaded guilty but Tommy Viktor Soderlund denied murdering a third Swede, Maksim Schantz, at a five-star apartment block in Phuket City.

Coincidentally, the key accused in the most sensational expat murders on Phuket in 2011 and 2010 appeared in Phuket Provincial Court yesterday.

Briton Lee Aldhouse, 30, faced the Phuket court for the first time since his extradition from Britain in December to deny murdering former US marine Dashawn Longfellow.

Ljung and Soderlund, both aged 27, rode to Phuket Provincial Court in shackles and in prison garb in the same truck with Aldhouse.

Ljung, who wielded the knife when he and Soderlund confronted Schantz on Phuket about a business deal that went wrong in Pattaya, has previously said he killed Schantz by mistake.

On August 1, 2011, the pair planned to handcuff Schantz then extract information from him. But when Schantz struggled, Ljung said at the reenactment, he went to grab Schantz by the shirt collar.

The knife in his hand pierced Schantz's throat and as Schantz bled to death, the two men commandeered a motorcycle at gunpoint to flee.

The pair were arrested soon after and have been in Phuket Prison since, awaiting yesterday's trial. Schantz's mother has lodged a plea for compensation for her son's death.

The two Swedes now have separate lawyers. Because the men have entered different pleas - Ljung pleading guilty and Soderlund pleading not guilty - they will also have separate trials.

Ljung is set to appear again in Phuket Provincial Court on March 25 and Soderlund will appear the following day.