Four kidnap accused collared after chase

Four kidnap accused collared after chase

Gang takes flight from Cambodia

Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, Immigration Bureau chief, inspects a poster at the bureau as he explains how his officers arrested four foreign suspects accused of abducting an Indonesian victim.  (Photo courtesy of Immigration Bureau)
Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, Immigration Bureau chief, inspects a poster at the bureau as he explains how his officers arrested four foreign suspects accused of abducting an Indonesian victim.  (Photo courtesy of Immigration Bureau)

Four unnamed foreign criminal suspects -- three Indonesian nationals and one Vietnamese national -- have been detained in Bangkok in connection with an abduction case involving an Indonesian victim, the Immigration Bureau said on Thursday.

A video clip received by the abducted man's family showed the abductors cutting off his finger and making a ransom demand of over 300,000 baht, said Pol Maj Gen Atchayon Kraithong, head of the bureau's Division 3.

The abduction case has shocked people in Indonesia, said Pol Maj Gen Atchayon.

On Sunday, the suspects entered Thailand at an immigration checkpoint in Sa Kaeo, which prompted a car chase from Sa Kaeo to Bangkok, he said.

The bureau was alerted by its Cambodian counterpart to the movements of the suspects from Cambodia into Thailand, he said.

The suspects were aware they were being chased and they managed to switch to a different public van to avoid being caught at a special checkpoint set up to stop them, he added.

The authorities later found the suspects holed up in a hotel in the downtown Pratunam area of Bangkok, he said.

Biometric technology was used to confirm whether the suspects were the same ones sought by the Cambodian police in connection with the kidnapping of the Indonesian.

The four are due to be handed over to Cambodian authorities at a later time.

In related news, the bureau also announced the arrest of a Japanese man identified only as Kazuo and two Thais who admitted to illegally procuring underage female prostitutes for the Japanese man.

The three suspects were detained by the immigration police in the northern province of Khon Kaen on Tuesday.

One Thai suspect was identified only by his first name as Phiraphong who is 57 years old and the other as Sayumphu.

They were charged with human trafficking, while the Japanese suspect was charged with sexual molestation of minors.

Prior to the arrests of these suspects, Khon Kaen immigration police had learned that at least two girls, one aged 14 and the other 15, had sold sex to the Japanese man and they had told police investigators they were paid 10,000 baht each for their services, said Pol Col Setthaphat na Songkhla, head of the bureau's Division 4.

Mr Sayumphu was caught committing the crime red-handed while taking a 17-year-old girl to the Japanese suspect at a hotel in Khon Kaen, said Pol Col Setthaphat.

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