Relatives of murdered Chinese man demand death penalty

Relatives of murdered Chinese man demand death penalty

Chinese nationals Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao, two of the four men wanted for the murder of compatriot Wang Jun, caught in Myanmar. Inset, police retrieve the suitcase containing the body from the Ping River on Feb 25. (Photo supplied via Assawin Pinitwong).
Chinese nationals Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao, two of the four men wanted for the murder of compatriot Wang Jun, caught in Myanmar. Inset, police retrieve the suitcase containing the body from the Ping River on Feb 25. (Photo supplied via Assawin Pinitwong).

Relatives of a Chinese man whose body was found in a suitcase pulled from the Ping River have demanded the death penalty for his killers, as two of the four hunted suspects caught in Myanmar were handed over to Thai authorities.

The body of Wang Jun, 30, a Chinese national, was cremated at Wat Bo Samsen in tambon Nong Pling of Muang district of Kamphaeng Phet on Wednesday.

Arrest warrants were issued for four of his Chinese compatriots on charges of premeditated murder. Two of them were arrested in Myanamar and returned to Thailand on Wednesday. 

According to police, they confessed to having murdered Wang Ju in Pattaya over a business debt.

Watchanon Thanachotchayapha, a legal adviser for the family, said relatives would take the victim's  bones and ashes to China for religious rites in his hometown. They were expected to return there on Thursday.

Wang's parents were deeply saddened by the loss of their only son, Mr Watchanon said.

He quoted the family as saying that Wang Jun had arrived to Thailand to work, but they did not know what type of job he did as he travelled to many countries. They were shocked to learn of his murder.  

All relatives insisted they had never seen the suspects before. Their faces were unfamiliar. They wanted police to bring them all to justice and that they face the death penalty, the lawyer said. 

“Unofficial autopsy results show that death was caused by suffocation with traces of being hit by a hard object found in his occipital bone,’’ said Mr Watchanon.

A suitcase containing Wang Jun's body, his arms and legs tied, was discovered in a black suitcase found floating in the Ping River in Muang district of Kamphaeng Phet on Feb 25.  

Chinese nationals Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao are taken from Myanmar's Myawaddy border town to Mae Sot district of Tak on Wednesday following their arrest in Rangoon. (Photo by Assawin Pinitwong)

On Feb 29, Pol Maj Gen Raweephan Amornmuneephong, chief of Kamphaeng Phet police, said investigators obtained warrants for the arrest of the four men from the provincial court on charges of colluding in a murder, illegal detention and concealment of a body.

The suspects were identified as Xiao Xiang Yu, Hu Zheng Xiong, Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao. Police believe they fled to Myanmar.

In Tak, deputy national police chief Pol Gen Suchart Theerasawat met senior provincial and regional police  on Wednesday to follow up the investigation and coordinate with Myanmar police in the handing over of the two suspects caught there.

A source said Myanmar police arrested Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao at Insein pier in Rangoon. They also arrested a Myanmar woman, Aung Hlaing Win, who was with them. Seized from them were a rental car, two fake Myanmar ID cards and 232,000 kyat (about US$164 at the official rate).

Fan Gang Gang and Qin Miao were returned to Tak's Mae Sot district on Wednesday afternoon. Myanmar police handed them over to police and immigration officers at Myawaddy border crossing. 

They were flown back to Kamphaeng Phet, Thai media reported. 

Pol Lt Gen Apichart Sirisit, chief of the Provincial Region 6, said the two suspects confessed via an interpreter that they had colluded in the murder, which was over a business debt. They committed the crime at a house in Pattaya, using a cord to strangle him and then crammed the man’s body into a suitcase.

The pair also allegedly confessed to having stabbed to death a Chinese woman. Her body was also put in a suitcase and dumped into the Ping River, Khaosod Online reported.

The two other suspects remained at large.

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