Gang tortured woman until she agreed to ransom

Adapted from an article by Mongkol Bangprapa in the Bankok Post

Date: Friday 2 Nov 2001

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Seized the day she arrived in Bangkok

Cai Xiu Juan had no idea her pleasure trip to Bangkok last month would become a nightmare. She had hoped for a good rest and after months of hard work at her foreign exchange company in China.

Instead, she was kidnapped on the day of her arrival by a Chinese acquaintance. She was held for 17 days and brutally tortured by captors who demanded a ransom of US$60,000 for her freedom.

Even after the ransom was paid, she remained in captivity until she was on Sunday by Bangkok police, who were alerted by the Chinese. She said she decided to come to Bangkok on her own because she had visited the city a couple of times before.

"I came without telling anyone and intended to stay here until I got fed up," she said. When she stepped out of Don Muang's arrival terminal on Oct 10, she was surprised to find a Chinese man she knew in China waiting for her. The man offered her free .

"I found him very . Because I had no fixed date for my return and it was a pleasure trip I took the offer," she said. They took a taxi to a house in a housing estate in Soi Soonvijai, off New Petchaburi road. There, she found to her surprise, were three other Chinese men waiting inside.

It was then she realised she had been , but it was too late. The three men rushed upon her and covered her face with a blanket soaked in anaesthetic.

"I regained consciousness when cold water was thrown on my face. I realised my hands were cuffed from behind and my mouth ," she recalled.

"I was taken to a small room in the house and was left alone for two days." She said she was not given any food or water during that time and was closely watched. "Even when I went to the toilet, one of my hands was cuffed to the hand of one of my ."

Mrs Cai said that on the third day her captors her and her with adhesive tape. "One of the kidnappers said they would set me free if I paid them $60,000." Her captors crushed her fingers and toes until she agreed to their ransom demand.

"I didn't know how many times I passed out and for how long. I felt that I could no longer bear the pain so I nodded."

After yielding, she was treated better. The blindfold and gag were removed. She was handed a telephone and told to talk to her husband in China, who works at a stock broking firm in Jiang Xu, not far from Shanghai. After with him, the kidnappers agreed to cut the ransom by half.

"After that I was given food and water, but I was still locked up in the small room and handcuffed. Every time I went to the toilet or to the bathroom, my hand was still handcuffed to one of the men's."

She said she was not sexually .

Her kidnappers contacted her husband several times to discuss how the ransom was to be paid. Her ID card was mailed to her husband to prove that she was being held . Unknown to the gang, Chinese police had alerted Thai police about the abduction. Chinese officers had followed one of the gang members from China to Thailand, a woman identified as Wang Pei, 20.

Wang reportedly went back to China to pick up the ransom and flew back to Thailand on Oct 27 to meet her boyfriend, Fan Senhong, 35, at Mahboonkrong shopping mall, where both were arrested. They led the police to the house where Mrs Cai was being held.

Three other suspects are still at .

Mrs Cai in the Criminal Court on Wednesday and again yesterday before leaving for China.

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