PHUKET: Two Swedish men being held on Phuket are to be tried separately for the murder of a third Swede after one said yesterday that he intended to plead guilty while the other continues to deny the accusation.
Johan Sebastian Ljung told Phuketwan that recurrent dreams about the knifing of Maksim Schantz kept interrupting his sleep at Phuket Prison.
''Many times I dream of that night,'' he said. ''I wake up in Phuket Prison, and I am lucky to be alive.
''If there is one thing you can help me to do,'' he said, ''please let my mother know that I need her forgiveness. That would lighten my burden.''
Ljung said a sister had been to visit him at the Phuket Prison about 12 months ago, but there had been no other contact from his family.
Fellow accused, Tommy Viktor Soderlund, opted in the wake of Ljung's decision to find a new lawyer to fight the murder charge.
A speedier court hearing is likely in the case of Ljung following his decision to admit guilt. A guilty plea usually brings a reduction in sentence.
The two Swedes have been in Phuket Prison since their arrest for the killing outside Shantz's luxurious rented apartment at The Lantern in Phuket City on August 1 last year.
The pair, both 27, fled the scene on a commandeered motorcycle but were arrested within 24 hours.
Killing Schantz was never the intention, the men said.
A reenactment indicated that the fatal knife blow to Schantz's neck came as Schantz struggled to break free and Ljung, knife in hand, tried to grab Schantz by the collar.
Soderlund and Ljung came to Phuket from Pattaya to talk to Schantz, who allegedly stole a list of potential Swedish victims of a call centre scam being operated from Pattaya. He owed Soderlund three million baht.
As Schantz bled to death, the two men allegedly fled through a back fence, ordering a local resident at gunpoint to surrender his motorcycle. They were arrested the next day in Cherng Talay.
Johan Sebastian Ljung told Phuketwan that recurrent dreams about the knifing of Maksim Schantz kept interrupting his sleep at Phuket Prison.
''Many times I dream of that night,'' he said. ''I wake up in Phuket Prison, and I am lucky to be alive.
''If there is one thing you can help me to do,'' he said, ''please let my mother know that I need her forgiveness. That would lighten my burden.''
Ljung said a sister had been to visit him at the Phuket Prison about 12 months ago, but there had been no other contact from his family.
Fellow accused, Tommy Viktor Soderlund, opted in the wake of Ljung's decision to find a new lawyer to fight the murder charge.
A speedier court hearing is likely in the case of Ljung following his decision to admit guilt. A guilty plea usually brings a reduction in sentence.
The two Swedes have been in Phuket Prison since their arrest for the killing outside Shantz's luxurious rented apartment at The Lantern in Phuket City on August 1 last year.
The pair, both 27, fled the scene on a commandeered motorcycle but were arrested within 24 hours.
Killing Schantz was never the intention, the men said.
A reenactment indicated that the fatal knife blow to Schantz's neck came as Schantz struggled to break free and Ljung, knife in hand, tried to grab Schantz by the collar.
Soderlund and Ljung came to Phuket from Pattaya to talk to Schantz, who allegedly stole a list of potential Swedish victims of a call centre scam being operated from Pattaya. He owed Soderlund three million baht.
As Schantz bled to death, the two men allegedly fled through a back fence, ordering a local resident at gunpoint to surrender his motorcycle. They were arrested the next day in Cherng Talay.
Why is Ljung asking for his mother's forgiveness? Shouldn't he be asking for his victim's mother's forgiveness?
Posted by Buster on November 3, 2012 13:58