Thailand
Dutchman sought by police in Thailand gets 28 years in jail in Peru

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community
PHUKET: Dutchman Joran Van der Sloot, wanted for questioning in Thailand for suspected sex trafficking, was sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian prison on Friday for the murder of a young woman he met at a casino in Lima, prosecutors said.
Van der Sloot was also once sought by police in Aruba for the disappearance of American teenage tourist Natalee Holloway.
Van der Sloot, 24, during the lengthy reading of the verdict in Lima on Friday appeared to be nervous, confused, sweating and in disbelief as he wiped away tears.
Natalee Holloway went missing on May 30, 2005, during a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Despite international media attention, her body was never found and a court in the United States ruled her legally dead on Thursday.
Exactly 5 years after Holloway’s disappearance, on May 30, 2010, Van der Sloot, after setting up shop in Bangkok for a few months, moved on to Peru where he took 21-year-old Peruvian woman Stephany Tatiana Flores to his Lima hotel room after meeting her at a local casino. She was found there several days later, strangled to death.
Van der Sloot was eventually arrested in Chile and deported back to Peru for trial.
The court in Peru sentenced him on Friday to 28 years in prison and ordered his deportation after completion of his prison time on June 10, 2038.
He was also ordered to pay a 200,000 soles ($74,200) fine, which will be paid to Flores’ family.
Van der Sloot earlier pled guilty to killing Flores after she apparently looked at his laptop and found out that he was linked to the disappearance of Holloway. Although Van der Sloot said he was sorry for what had happened, the three judges did not believe his apology was sincere.
His lawyer said he would appeal the sentence.
After Van der Sloot is released in 2038, he could face deportation to the United States where a warrant for his arrest was issued in 2010 after he allegedly tried to extort $250,000 from Natalee Holloway’s mother in exchange for the location of her remains and the circumstances surrounding her death.
During his stay in Bangkok in 2008, police, in addition suspecting Van Der Sloot of sex trafficking, also wanted to question him over the disappearance of several young Thai women.
There was no indication that he had operated in Phuket, or that any of the missing women had disappeared from Phuket.
— Phuket Gazette Editors
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Business
Vietjet CEO, dreams to transform the world

“Start-ups shouldn’t ‘save on’ dreams but rather dream big and realise them by simple acts each day at your business or organisation.”
Meet the tour-de-force behind the establishment of VietJet, one of the region’s most successful aviation start ups.
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Any first-timers meeting Vietnam’s only self-made female billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao will be taken aback by the opposites she harbours. A petite woman with a bright smile always on her face, Nguyen will talk in her soft voice about her business motto… once you dream, dare to dream big.
‘Dream big and realise them’
Nguyen has been popular in the business since her young days studying abroad. Her hard work has paid off when she became a millionaire at the age of 21 – not a usual dream for a college student. But Nguyen is different. She strives to be the pioneer of everything she does by bravely conquering all challenges.
Upon returning to Vietnam, Nguyen has quickly made her appearance widely noticed by her successful investments in the finance-banking and aviation sectors. She is now the CEO of Vietjet Air and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of HDBank.
To many young Vietnamese start-ups, Nguyen is the big inspiration and a role model for them to follow.
“Start-ups shouldn’t ‘save on’ dreams but rather dream big and realise them by simple acts each day at your business or organisation. We ourselves have turned the impossible into possible and made our dream come true. Millions for the first time have been able to fly and I’m extremely happy to learn that they are not only Vietnamese but people from other countries who have boarded a Vietjet flight for the first time.”
The billionaire’s motto has also inspired her own employees at Vietjet and HDBank to keep their dreams alive despite all adversities. Regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts on the economy, the staff at Vietjet and HDBank are confident of their company’s new business strategy and solutions to overcome the pandemic.
Nguyen even envisions Vietnamese enterprises leading and creating a global sentiment by developing them into multinational, multicultural companies and integrating the most cutting-edge technologies.
“We need to be the pioneer of the digitalisation and automation trend in the industrial revolution 4.0 – the key factors for growth.”
Her message is realised at Vietjet as the airline has recruited nearly 6,000 employees coming from 50 countries and territories on its way to revolutionise the aviation sector of Vietnam, the region and the world. HDBank, meanwhile, has particularly grown by more than 20 times in the last decade after 30 years of relentless innovation since establishment.
‘An inspirer of kindness’
Recognised as a successful businesswoman, Nguyen though never thought of making money the ultimate goal of business. The values her company can create, especially for the sake of the community, is what truly matters to her. Nguyen also highly regards business ethics, stressing that “honesty will guide us to do the good things for the society”.
Nguyen has initiated the “Wings of Love” program to grant scholarships and gifts to children at orphanages and poor families, as well as to give winter clothes to children in remote regions.
“I understand more about the responsibility of the company and that of each of us to the community every time being on a charity trip and realise how brilliant the idea of our CEO, Mrs Thao, is. We all call her an inspirer of kindness,” a Vietjet employee said.
In addition to the “Wings of Love” program, HDBank has also supported the national chess sport via the HDBank Cup International Chess Tournament for the last 10 years, preparing the ground for the internationally famous chess players like Quang Liem and Truong Son. The bank has also organised the HDBank Futsal with a long-term goal of improving the physical health of young Vietnamese.
Despite unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic, Vietjet and HDBank are still committed to charity activities. The airline has helped to bring hundreds of thousands of passengers back to their home countries like South Korea, Japan and China, while operating hundreds of repatriation flights during the pandemic. It also gave 2.5 million of face masks to the people in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States. Vietjet’s aircrafts have transported thousands of tons of medical equipment and essential goods to the people under social distancing as well as urgently delivered relief cargo to the flooded Central region.
The female billionaire and her employees have cooked and distributed more than 100,000 meals to disadvantaged people like motorbike taxi drivers or street lottery sellers. HDBank has launched special credit packages in support of those who were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, while granting 1,000 premium hospital beds to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health and another thousands of health insurance passes to the people.
The popular magazine Tatler has honoured Nguyen as one of the 110 Asian figures in philanthropic activities due to her lasting acts of kindness through years.
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Crime
Woman’s charred remains found near northern Thailand rubber plantation

The charred remains of a 19 year old woman was found near a rubber plantation in Phitsanulok, a province in northern Thailand. Police say the woman’s 18 year old boyfriend, a murder suspect, turned himself in.
Jularat Kongkaew was reported missing on February 27. She had left her home the previous afternoon with her boyfriend, a Mathayom 6 student (equivalent to a high school senior), who said he was taking Jularat to see a doctor, according to Jularat’s mother.
Police received a report about the remains of a woman’s body in the Ban Muang Hom district at around 7am yesterday. Along with the charred remains of Jularat’s body, investigators found 3 burned car tyres.
After the remains were found, the victim’s boyfriend turned himself in to the Kaeng Sopha police.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Second batch of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to arrive in Thailand on March 25

A second order of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines are expected to arrive on March 25, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced today. 800,000 doses are set to be sent to Thailand later this month.
Along with informing the Thai government on the expected arrival date for the vaccines, Chinese officials also asked that the Thai government consider vaccinating Chinese nationals who are living in Thailand and establishing of a China Immunisation Centre for Overseas Chinese. Nation Thailand reports “Thailand will continue to seek support for the vaccine from China as a friend.”
There’s also talk of a travel bubble between the 2 countries for those who are vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The first batch of 200,000 doses arrived last month along with another shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Altogether, the Thai government ordered 2 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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