Fängelse för ingenting

[Joints]

En fyrbarnsmamma från Australien sitter sedan fyra dagar i buren i Phuket efter att någon på skoj lagt en barmatta i hennes handväska. Hon riskerar fem år i fängelse.

http://livenews.com.009/5/19/206999

http://www.news.com.077-661,00.html

Det finns de som menar att all reklam är bra reklam men är det verkligen detta Thailand och Phuket behöver just nu? Känns som om Thailand börjar få ett väldigt dåligt rykte i Australien. Först Harry och nu detta.

Tydligen ska Australiens nya PM ha engagerat sig.

[Guest Mr Lamai]

Antar att du plöjt www.thaivisa.com Jäkligt jobbig tråd det där och att det finns folk som försvarar den där Steve. Jag skulle då aldrig mer besöka den där lögnarens, ja visst lögnare då han hävdar att hon satt inlåst för att varit ful i munnen mot polisen men FAKTUM är ju att åtalet kommer gälla stöld fån Steves bar!!!!

Snart kan ni köpa en bar på Bangla!!

Mr Lamai

[lars60]

Även här står det om damen från Australien!

http://www.phuketgaz...dex.asp?id=7380

PHUKET / MELBOURNE (AAP): The Australian woman arrested in Phuket, Thailand for allegedly stealing a bar mat says she's "scared, helpless and alone" and is pleading for the Australian government to intervene.

Annice Smoel, who spent four days in a cramped Thai jail with three other women, described her holiday gone wrong as "totally unbelievable".

Ms Smoel, 36, from Montrose in Melbourne's east, faces five years in jail, but insists she's done nothing wrong.

During a telephone link-up from Phuket with reporters, she broke down saying she just wanted to get home to her four young daughters aged 6, 8, 11 and 12.

[lars60]

Nu verkar det vara slutet på denna "världsnyhet".THB 1000 i böter! 

Austrailian tourist pays 1,000 baht fine for Phuket bar mat theft

http://www.phuketgaz...dex.asp?id=7389

Australian tourist Annice Smoel at Phuket Immigration offices after pleading guilty to stealing a bar mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong and paying a 1,000-baht fine.

The 'bar mat' from the Aussie bar in Patong that started the whole controversy was 145cm by 45 cm and made of thick rubber.

PHUKET CITY: Australian tourist Annice Smoel pleaded guilty on Wednesday to stealing a bar mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong and paid a 1,000-baht fine (approx US$ 28.00) before leaving Phuket.

Pol Maj Songserm Preecha of the Kathu Police, which operates in Patong, told the Gazette that the maximum sentence for the theft charge was one year imprisonment and a 2,000-baht fine, but Phuket Provincial Court halved both the prison sentence and fine based on her confession.

The court then suspended the prison sentence because Ms Smoel has no previous criminal record in Thailand.

Ms Smoel’s case has made major headlines in Australia, which is a prime source of tourists to Phuket at this time of year.

She was arrested and detained for two nights in a cell at Kathu Police Station after police caught her with a stolen beer mat (aka 'bar mat') from the Aussie Bar on Soi Bangla in Patong.

The bar mat, measuring 145cm by 45 cm, was made of thick rubber and can be bought from the Aussie Bar as a souvenir.

The Australian mother or four initially denied the charges, saying friends had put the item in her handbag without her knowledge as a prank.

Kathu Police forwarded the case to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and seized her passport, preventing her from leaving Thailand to go home to her children.

The non-stop, worldwide publicity surrounding the case – and its possible impact on tourism – apparently made the court expedite the case.

A Thai person facing the same charge would typically have to wait weeks or months for a court hearing.

Maj Songserm also denied that Ms Smoel spent four nights in prison, as has been widely reported. She spent two nights in prison and was released after 48 hours, the maximum allowable under the law, he said.

Ms Smoel was in an angry mood and quarreled with staff at the Aussie Bar. She was arrested by uniformed officers after staff at the bar reported the theft, not by “undercover police” inside the bar as previously reported in major media around the world, he said.