The arrests were confirmed by a report of the incident by Cherng Talay Police Superintendent Pol Col Chalermchai Hersawat last Tuesday (Sept 5).
The report was recorded on a form marked “Form for reporting serious and shocking incidents and reasons that must be reported urgently” that was addressed to deputy national police chief Pol Gen Torsak Sukwimol, and 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.
Of note, so far police ‒ or any other officials ‒ in Phuket have yet to publicly recognise the incident, despite a press conference last Friday (Sept 8) that was held specifically to assure the public that law-enforcement in Phuket was dealing with any aspects of criminal activity by Russians in Phuket.
The press conference was held in response to a report by Al Jazeera, reporting already long well known problems of Russians working illegally, and the arrival of violent crime by Russian nationals on the island, including the threat of gangland violence rearing its head on the streets, such as when a Kazakh national opened fire four times in broad daylight on 44-year-old Russian businessman Dmitry Aleynikov outside a cafe in Boat Avenue on June 7.
The report issued by Cherng Talay Police Chief Pol Col Chalermchai last Tuesday confirmed the arrests of 28-year-old Russian twin brothers Khasan Askhabov and Khusein Askhabpov (the report used the different spelling of the brothers’ family name, but clearly marked the brothers as “twins”).
Born in Grozny, Chechnya, Khusein Askhabov is well known as MMA fighter ‘Nohcho’. Although ESPN still lists Khusein as fighting out of Tiger Muay Thai in Chalong, he is now understood to be training at a Muay Thai camp in Cherng Talay.
Khusein and his brother Khasan were arrested on Tuesday (Sept 5), Col Chalermchai confirmed. The report did not mark where the twins were arrested, but noted they were taken into custody under arrest warrants No. 479/2566 and No 480/2566, issued by Phuket Provincial Court on Monday (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", charges which fall under the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act B.E. 2565 (2022), which covers three significant offences including torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as well as enforced disappearance.
The report marked that the arrests followed an investigation launched after a formal complaint of the incident was received on Monday (Sept 4). The report did not mark details of the ordeal, but did confirm the theft of:
- One Rolex ‘Daytona’ watch valued at about B2,476,500
- One Patek Philippe ‘Nautilus’ watch valued at about B3,805,250
- One GRAFF watch valued at about B1,600,200
- One Macbook, a new iPhone 13 and a new iPhone 14, and a pair of sunglasses
Also listed as stolen were the Italian man’s passport, his ADIB bank (Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) debit card as well as passwords for accessing his telephones, safe and computers.
The Phuket News was told that the three men also stole 40,000 euros in cash (about B1,523mn) from the safe plus 16,000 euros (about B609,578) was stolen in Dubai by use of the stolen debit card, which was known only after the incident had been reported to police.
A source close to the Italian man told The Phuket News that the ordeal began when three men entered the Italian man’s villa at the well-known resort through a side door and grabbed him while he was still asleep in the bedroom at about 11pm last Sunday night (Sept 3).
The three, which the Italian man said he had never seen before, dragged him out of the bedroom then bound, gagged and blindfolded him.
His assailants then received a phone call from a person orchestrating the attack, through which the three men asked for information, including the location of a drive containing a ledger of cryptocurrency, which the Italian men denied he had.
The first beating began, lasting some 30 minutes, which ended with another phone call to the three attackers, relaying further instructions.
The ordeal continued through the night, with the Italian man suffering multiple contusions to his face and body from the beatings.
The three men eventually fled the villa, leaving the Italian man bound and gagged.
CCTV security footage from the resort showed the Italian man finally making his escape, rolling down a pathway ‒ still bound and gagged but no long blindfolded ‒ towards the resort’s motorbike parking area at 4:48pm the next day (Monday, Sept 4).
The three attackers were later identified and confirmed as clearing Immigration at Phuket International Airport at 6:58am last Monday (Sept 4). The three men boarded Flight EK397 from Phuket to Dubai, and are now believed to have returned to Kazakhstan
The Italian man said he had first met the Askhabov brothers at a beach cafe in Cherng Talay about a year ago. They had become acquaintances over the past year. However, he had never seen the three Kazakh attackers before the ordeal.