A RUSSIAN journalist told Pattaya police that a gang of his countrymen kidnapped him from a hotel at this seaside city and only freed him after he and his wife paid 2.5-million-baht ransom, Amarin TV said this morning (June 27).
At 9 a.m. yesterday a Russian man, later identified only as Mr. David, 28, who works as a special correspondent for a news agency in his country filed a complaint about being kidnapped for ransom in injured condition with bruises on his face and signs of assault.
He related that at 5 a.m. the same day while staying at a hotel in Jomtien area a group of approximately four Russian men barged into the room with him being acquainted with one of them which was why he opened the door.
After barging in they threatened him with firearms, handcuffed him, covered his head with a black bag and pistol-whipped him on the head several times then told him to contact his wife in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district.
They sent a video clip of him being assaulted, displaying his battered body and wounded face and press card and told her if she did not pay ransom or reported the kidnapping to police he would not survive.
In shock and fear she agreed to hand over a Rolex Daytona luxury watch worth approximately 600,000 baht to the kidnappers at a meeting point in Bangkok they had arranged.
While handing over the watch she was able to take a photo of a man wearing a white shirt and black pants, believed to be one of the kidnappers.
However, the ordeal did not end there, with the kidnappers continuing to extort money from the victim, until he agreed to transfer Bitcoin worth 1.9 million baht to a specified wallet – taking total loss to 2.5 million baht.
After that the gang dropped David off in Pattaya City but along the way they continued to assault him and destroyed the interior of the car including the display screen and windshield.
Initially, Pattaya City have been able to arrest some of the suspects and are currently collecting more evidence, including going through surveillance camera footage and questioning eyewitnesses and checking transaction paths via the blockchain system, in order to expand the investigation and track down the remaining members of the gang for legal action.
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The Russian kidnap victim and his wife at Pattaya police station. Photos: Amarin TV
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