A member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club has been sentenced to death and two others given life imprisonment for the gruesome murder of a German property broker whose dismembered body was found in a freezer in Pattaya last year.
The Pattaya Provincial Court initially handed down death sentences on Friday to all three defendants involved in the murder of Hans Peter Walter Mack, 62, in July last year. The slaying shocked the public and hit international headlines.
As two of them confessed, the court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.
The dismembered body of Mack was found in a freezer at a house in tambon Nong Prue of Bang Lamung district on July 10 last year by detectives who had been following up leads based on security camera video. He had not been seen by his family since July 4.
Investigators subsequently arrested two German nationals — Olaf Thorsten, 52, and Petra Christl Grundgreif, 54 — and a Pakistani man holding Thai nationality, Zahrouk Kareem Uddin, 27. They were charged with colluding in theft and murder.
According to police, the trio had abducted Mack and murdered him before transferring 3.35 million baht from the victim’s bank account
During questioning, the three denied any involvement. But police handling the case confirmed they had obtained sufficient evidence to indict them.
Prosecutors indicted them for premeditated murder and concealing a body after receiving the police report.
During the trial, Brinkmann and Ms Grundgreif, the first and second defendants, confessed to the crimes. As their confessions were useful, the court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. Uddin maintained his innocence.
In a related case, the court sentenced another German suspect, identified only as Enrico, to six years in prison for money laundering and receiving stolen property after he accepted money transfers connected to the crime from Brinkmann.
