Kuwaiti man assaulted in Phuket after insulting Thais (video)

Two Thai men physically assaulted a Kuwaiti man near Soi Bangla in the Patong neighbourhood of Phuket after the foreigner allegedly insulted Thai people.

Officers from Patong Police Station were alerted to the gang attack on the tourist at about 7.20am on Tuesday, August 13, and rushed to the scene, a road near Soi Bangla in the Kathu district of Phuket. Officers found the injured foreigner, later identified as 32 year old Naeaaf Al Otajbi, at the scene.

Police called rescuers from the Kusol Dham Foundation to transfer Otajbi to a hospital. Otajbi reportedly returned home immediately after receiving treatment. He told police that he needed to rest and would take legal action against the attackers later.

Following brief questioning at the hospital, Otajbi said he was on his way to his accommodation when the attackers approached and assaulted him.

Police reviewed security camera footage from the scene and found two attackers, one of whom was a motorcycle taxi rider, attacking the Kuwaiti man until he collapsed on the road and lost consciousness. The attackers then left the scene separately.

Channel 8 reported that the Kuwaiti man had not filed a complaint with the police since the incident, but officers managed to arrest the two attackers featured in the video yesterday, August 15.

The two Thai attackers claimed that Otajbi could speak Thai but not fluent. They alleged that Otajbi insulted Thai people loudly while intoxicated. The attackers stated they could not bear the insult and launched the attack on the foreigner.

However, the police are unable to legally punish the attackers because legal proceedings require a complaint from the Kuwaiti victim. Police would file charges against the attackers once the foreign victim comes forward.

In a similar incident, a group of Thai transwomen gang attacked a foreign man in Soi Bangla in May, claiming that the foreigner had slapped one of them without reason. One transwoman claimed that the foreigner previously rode a motorcycle around the area, randomly kicking and annoying people.

Another related incident occurred in Phuket in March when two Thai transwomen physically assaulted two foreign men in the Patong area. It is suspected that they argued over the price of sex services before the altercation took place.