The Swede, Mr Andreas Ringvall, who allegedly killed a New Zealand man in a fight at a bar in Thailand, back in August 2012, has been sentenced for murder in Thailand to ten years imprisonment by Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden.
After two years on the run he had been arrested in Sweden and convicted in Nacka District Court to one year and six months in prison for aggravated assault and manslaughter. He also had to pay damages to the New Zealander’s relatives.
The district court held that the man remained in a self-defence situation, but that he had gone beyond what is needed to ward off the attack he was the victim of. The district court did not consider that the man had the intent to kill.
The victim died in Pattaya from knife wounds in the neck. A Swedish citizen was detained as criminal suspects by police at the scene, but was released from custody a few days later and returned to Sweden in October 2012. The criminal investigation was taken over in 2014 by the Swedish authorities. In Sweden, the man was charged for murder,” writes Svea Court of Appeal.
On 11 December this court sentenced the man for murder.
“The investigation of the case shows, which was not challenged by the man, that he caused the victim’s death. The Court of Appeal judges that the man was indeed the victim of a criminal attack, and therefore had the right to self-defence, but that the violence he has pursued has been clearly unjustifiable and therefore criminal. Svea Court of Appeal believes, unlike the district court that the man had the intent to kill because he used a kind of knife violence which almost certainly leads to that the victim of the violence dies. Given this situation the victim remained in, the sentence is determined to imprisonment for 10 years.”
“The crime was committed in Thailand and was investigated initially by Thai authorities. The Court of Appeal observes that there are some flaws in this investigation and has largely been based on man’s own information.”
