A 47 year old Danish man was on 18 November 2023 apprehended in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on charges of stealing an expensive Celine handbag and five less expensive items in the bag. Total value 94.500 THB.
Yesterday, Wednesday 27 December 2023, he appeared for the first time in a court meeting. In the presence of a Danish interpreter he met online for the first time with the lawyer that the court had assigned to him since he did not have his own lawyer. It was over a month since he was arrested, and he wanted first of all the prosecutors indictment translated into Danish so he could understand exactly what he was accused of. Secondly, he was eager to explain what happened that night. Behind him was a room filled with people sitting on the floor waiting for their turn to appear before the camera.
Briefly, he was by mistake in the wrong airport. He also was sick with an upset stomach. The first thing he did when his taxi reached the airport was to visit a toilet. When he emerged from that, he saw the black handbag on the floor and thought he should help return it to the owner. He picked up the bag. Then his stomach movements forced him to quickly retreat into a handicap toilet with his suitcase and his backpack – and the handbag. In the toilet, his backpack opened and spilled all the content out on the floor. After his business in the toilet he scraped everything back into the backpack – including the black bag – and realizing he was in the wrong airport, he hurried out to catch a taxi to go to Don Mueang airport. Completely forgetting that he also had the handbag he had found and its content in his backpack.
But his lawyer didn’t have time to listen. He just wanted to ask him “Did you steal the bag or did you not?”
“Please translate,” the Dane replied. “I never confessed to anything. I did not steal anything! I found a bag and I wanted to return it along with the content to its owner. But circumstances that night were so confusing.”
The lawyer then quickly concluded that since this was not a case of crime and confession as stated in the indictment, he would have to build a defense for him and that meant meeting with him again in the detention center. End of hearing. The prosecutor was also not there.
Last request from the Dane before he was asked to step away from the camera was if somebody would please ask the Danish Embassy to visit him since he was worried about his family not knowing where he was and his mother being frail. The court said the embassy had been informed already a month ago. The lawyer said, he would contact the embassy to make sure they knew where the Dane was kept. His assistant also asked for the relatives to contact the lawyer, so they could facilitate transfer of any money the Dane might need wile being detained.
A new hearing will be held when the lawyer has met with the Dane and has had time to write a response to the indictment.
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