Thailand seeks extradition of 3 men suspected of murdering Chinese student

Thailand‘s Deputy Police Chief Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn wants to see the three Chinese nationals suspected of abducting and murdering a Chinese student in Nonthaburi province, before fleeing to China, to be extradited to Thailand to face prosecution.

On April 1, the body of 22 year old Thonburi University Student Jin Can was found dumped in a swampy ditch at a banana plantation in the Bang Yai district of Nonthaburi.

Jin Can was abducted by three Chinese men who contacted her father in China to request a ransom equivalent to 2.5 million baht (500,000 yuan). When the ransom was not paid, the gang allegedly stabbed their hostage to death before dumping her body and fleeing Thailand by boarding a flight to China,

After police collected a stack of evidence pointing to three Chinese nationals, Nonthaburi Provincial Court issued arrest warrants for 23 year old Chen Saiken, 23 year old Zhou Xiongfei and 24 year old Zhou Pengfei, all of Chinese nationality.

The arrest warrants detailed the following charges:

• Jointly kidnapping a person over the age of 15 years old using deceit, violence, or coercion.
• Detaining or confining a person and depriving them of liberty to obtain a ransom.
• Causing the kidnapped or confined person to die.
• Jointly killing a person with the intent to conceal other offences or avoid being criminally charged for other offences.
• Jointly damaging, destroying, moving, concealing, manipulating a corpse to conceal death; and joint theft.

Police in China managed to track down and arrest the three men in Wuhan and Big Joke sent a team of Thai investigators to China to assist in the Chinese police investigation.

Police in China say that the three suspects confessed to the murder of Jin Can and say that they paid 40,000 baht to a Thai woman working in a bar in Soi Inthamara for advice about how to contact the deceased. Some reports say the woman allegedly advised the suspects where to commit their crimes and drove them to Suvarnabhumi Airport once the murder was complete.

The police arrested 19 year old woman on suspicion of premeditated murder, kidnapping for ransom and concealing a dead body.

Thai police want to see all responsible for the death of Jin Can be prosecuted in Thailand where the murder took place, said Big Joke.

Big Joke says that getting the extradition request approved might be difficult because the suspects committed a crime that carries the death penalty as a punishment in China, reports CH8.

Police have concluded their investigation and written it up in a report. A Chinese translation of the report will be delivered to police in China on April 21, said Big Joke.