“Officially! All charges against the Askhabov brothers have been dropped and they are already free,” MMA sports channel ‘Red Fury MMA’ said in a post on the VKontakte social network on Saturday (Nov 25).
“The injured person named the athletes, but during the investigation it turned out that they were not involved in this incident. Now the police are going to open a case against the victim for false testimony,” the post continued.
“Khusein will fight his next fight in the UFC in February or March, negotiations have already begun,” the post concluded.
The Askhabov brothers were arrested in connection with three Kazakh nationals forcing their way into an Italian man’s villa at a resort in Cherng Talay and holding him bound and gagged while beating him for information in an hours-long ordeal in early September.
The ordeal ended with the three Kazakh men flying out of Phuket to Dubai after robbing the Italian man of more than B12 million in personal belongings.
Cherng Talay Police Superintendent Pol Col Chalermchai Hersawat confirmed the arrest of the Ashabov brothers in a report on Sept 5 that was recorded on a form marked “Form for reporting serious and shocking incidents and reasons that must be reported urgently”.
The form was addressed to Pol Gen Torsak Sukwimol, who was deputy national police chief at the time. Pol Gen Torsak is now Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police.
The report was also addressed to all the senior ranking officers down the chain of command to Region 8 Police, Phuket Provincial Police and even the Phuket Governor and Thalang District Chief.
However, neither Cherng Talay Police nor Phuket Provincial Police have ever commented on the case. Despite the ongoing publicity campaign by the national government to promote tourists’ safety, no provincial officials also have not ever commented on the case.
The Askhabov brothers were taken into custody under arrest warrants No. 479/2566 and No 480/2566, issued by Phuket Provincial Court on Sept 4.
The report confirmed the arrests were made with the intent of prosecuting the brothers with “the act of robbery done with cruelty to the extent that others receive it and endangering the body or mind through torture".