Man killed in Thailand 'held for days'

[dr dave soul monsta]

A 53-year-old trader whose body was dumped in a Bangkok suburb with another body, told an acquaintance in mid-March he was being confined by a Thai and two Japanese, sources close to the investigation said.

The trader, from Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, also is believed to have been carrying 80 million yen when he entered the country, but the money has not been found.

The Metropolitan Police Department and the Thai national police suspect the trader was held captive and then shot to death by an organized crime group that includes Japanese.

According to the sources, the trader arrived in Thailand on March 7, accompanied by a 52-year-old trading firm employee who acted as his interpreter. One body has been identified as that of the trader, and the other is thought to be that of the trading firm employee.

A 70-year-old judicial scrivener in Tokyo and his friend from Yokohama visited Thailand around the same time as the trader and the trading firm employee.

According to the judicial scrivener, the trader had been his client for about 10 years. He learned in early March that the trader would visit Thailand on business at the time he planned to go sightseeing in the country, and told the trader the name of the hotel at which he would be staying.

The judicial scrivener received a phone call from the trader at the hotel on the night of March 16, the day before he was due to leave Thailand.

The trader reportedly told him, "I'm being confined by a Thai named Sam and two Japanese who call themselves Ito and Tanaka."

The trader added: "I'm alright. I'll be able to go back in about a week."

The call was cut off after about 10 seconds, the judicial scrivener said.

On March 20, three days after the judicial scrivener returned to Japan, he received another call at his Tokyo office from the trader. "I told you something a while ago, but you shouldn't worry," he said, before the call was cut off after about 20 seconds.

The judicial scrivener did not hear from the trader again, so he contacted the MPD on March 31.

"He said he was going to make a big business deal, but I don't know what it was about," the judicial scrivener said.

Investigators have traced the international call on March 20 to a pay phone near a hotel in central Bangkok, and learned the interpreter sent an e-mail to his workplace on March 24 saying he was fine.

The trader is thought to have taken 80 million yen into Thailand. He reportedly told several acquaintances, "I can get a massive amount of loans there."

The Yomiuri Shimbun