PHUKET: Two Swedish men accused of the murder of a third Swede on Phuket earlier this year appeared in Phuket Provincial Court today to face five charges in relation to the killing.
Tommy Viktor Soderlund and Johan Sebastian Ljung, both aged 26, pleaded not guilty to all counts.
The pair were dressed in brown Phuket Prison uniforms with handcuffs on their wrists and shackles on their ankles. Today's proceedings were translated from Thai into English.
Two judges, sitting at the court in Phuket City, were told that that results of an autopsy on Maksim Schantz, 25, were not yet available.
Specifics of a handgun allegedly brandished on August 1 at a luxury Phuket City residential block, The Lantern, were also not yet available.
A lawyer, Ronakorn Kaempila, said he was from Bangkok and had been engaged by Mr Soderlund's mother to act on behalf of both men.
Five charges were read to the court:
..Possession of a handgun and seven bullets with no permit;
..Possession of a handgun in a public area;
..Threatening use of as knife in a public area;
..Conspiracy to murder;
..Theft of a motorcycle.
The two men pleaded ''not guilty'' once, to all charges.
Schantz was stabbed in the throat and later died from the wound when the three men, two of them former business partners, scuffled outside Shantz's rented three-storey duplex.
The Swedes insisted that murder was never their intention. They had come 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.
As Schantz bled to death, the two men allegedly fled through a back fence, ordering a local resident to surrender his motorcycle. They were arrested the next day in Cherng Talay, in Phuket's north.
The hearing was adjourned until next year.
Tommy Viktor Soderlund and Johan Sebastian Ljung, both aged 26, pleaded not guilty to all counts.
The pair were dressed in brown Phuket Prison uniforms with handcuffs on their wrists and shackles on their ankles. Today's proceedings were translated from Thai into English.
Two judges, sitting at the court in Phuket City, were told that that results of an autopsy on Maksim Schantz, 25, were not yet available.
Specifics of a handgun allegedly brandished on August 1 at a luxury Phuket City residential block, The Lantern, were also not yet available.
A lawyer, Ronakorn Kaempila, said he was from Bangkok and had been engaged by Mr Soderlund's mother to act on behalf of both men.
Five charges were read to the court:
..Possession of a handgun and seven bullets with no permit;
..Possession of a handgun in a public area;
..Threatening use of as knife in a public area;
..Conspiracy to murder;
..Theft of a motorcycle.
The two men pleaded ''not guilty'' once, to all charges.
Schantz was stabbed in the throat and later died from the wound when the three men, two of them former business partners, scuffled outside Shantz's rented three-storey duplex.
The Swedes insisted that murder was never their intention. They had come 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.
As Schantz bled to death, the two men allegedly fled through a back fence, ordering a local resident to surrender his motorcycle. They were arrested the next day in Cherng Talay, in Phuket's north.
The hearing was adjourned until next year.
NEVER steal a conman's list of victims! Not too bright, are they?
Posted by Hieronymous on December 14, 2011 20:47