Yesterday, 20th August 2017, marked the 3 year anniversary of the death of Volker Schwartges from Duesseldorf (47).

Mr Schwartges was brutally murdered in Soi Green Mango by five mobsters who are members of local influential families. Despite extensive evidence including CCTV footage none of assailants ever stood trial or spent a single night in jail.

Distraught mother Gisela Schwartges announced yesterday that she has given up her fight against ignorance and corruption, and will no longer seek justice for her son as she believes it is unobtainable as the case was buried by Thai prosecutors and police a long time ago.

The murder of Mr Schwartges took place after an altercation with some youths he found sitting on his motorbike in the car park of the Green Mango. During the altercation Mr Schwartges was fatally stabbed. Three of the perpetrators were apprehended shortly after the attack and were taken to the police station where they confessed to hitting Mr Schwartges with broken bottles before a local Thai named Ittison Tanprasert slit his neck with a knife perforating his main artery causing his death. The knife was later secured and kept as evidence. Unfathomably after their confessions the men were allowed to walk free.

Several newspapers such as Duesseldorfer Express, BILD, FARANG, Wochenblitz and also Thai newspapers such as Bangkok Post, The Nation and Samui Times and Phuket Gazette reported on this murder case. However, very soon after the killings the case went quiet, no further questions were asked. The case went cold and so did the files.

Investigations by FARANG and Duesseldorfer Express seemed to revive the case in November 2014, when a letter to the Thai Embassy and Thai Foreign Office in Berlin was sent. The questions were: Why did the public prosecutor’s office Koh Samui – three months after the killing of Schwartges – not receive police files with investigation results and conclusions? A letter by the Royal Thai Embassy Berlin stated that the case was being investigated again and police in Chaweng were urged to move forward with their murder investigation. As a deadline 18/11/2014 was set – however, our research into this case showed no movement, at all. Nothing happened till today and no files were ever handed over to the court.

Another research at public prosecutor’s office Koh Samui, namely general attorney Paibul Achawanantakul showed that no police file had ever been presented by spring time 2015. A final call at Khun Paibul’s office was answered by the leaving public attorney in April 2015 – he confirmed that he never ever received a conclusive investigation report by Chaweng police. In May 2015 Paibul Achawanantakul was transferred, nobody ever resumed the murder case Schwartges, again.

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