The Criminal Court has jailed two men for 15 years for kidnapping a woman who happened to be an aunt of one of the convicted men.
Worapong Pinsuwan, 50, and Thongchai Khampan, 31, were found guilty of abducting Narumol Hariraksathakoon, 79, Worapong's aunt, in Bangkok's Dusit district on Jan 11 of this year.
The two men conspired to lure Ms Narumol from her home and into a car by telling her they were taking her to her bank, the court said.
The pair then took Ms Narumol to an undisclosed location where they held her and demanded a three-million-baht ransom from her children. During her captivity the woman was handcuffed and assaulted.
The men used a knife to threaten the woman into giving them 32,000 baht, the court said.
The court found the men guilty of kidnapping and holding a person for ransom, forceful detention, unlawful carrying of a weapon, and robbery.
For the kidnap and ransom, the pair were each handed a 15-year jail term and another 15 years for robbery. They were also fined for 1,000 baht each for carrying a weapon.
The men faced a combined jail term of 30 years each. However, the court halved thesentence and the fine because they confessed.
