A Norwegian man who says he was robbed of 10 million baht by his Thai wife and allegedly framed by the Thai police has claimed that he has the proof of his innocence.
In an interview from his exile in the Philippines Vidar Pettersen, 68, said that he has only just been made aware of the details of a court judgement against him in May 2016.
He received a one year 6,000 baht sentence for possessing an illegal gun. Though the prison term was halved and suspended and the fine halved on admission, he was soon deported indefinitely thereafter.
But he now says that when it was claimed he was in possession of the gun – on May 6th 2016 in Tha Bo district 26 kilometres west of Nong Khai – he was in fact being held in the provincial prison on another matter.
Because everything was in Thai at the time of his court appearance he did not know what was going on. He had sacked his Thai lawyer who had bled him dry.
In December other Thai media featured his story on TV. They had interviewed him at an undisclosed location that Mr Pettersen said was in fact Vientiane in Laos.
He said at the time he had attempted to buy off the cops even though he was innocent. He was still found guilty and lost his money all the same.
But worst of all is that Mr Pettersen is still separated from his 6 year old son Arthur who he adores and is desperate to see again. He has not seen Arthur for two years after he was deported in May 2016.
A letter now in the possession of Thaivisa and addressed “To Whom it may Concern” says that Mr Pettersen was deported for “100 years”, but is innocent and is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Now details have emerged that his wife Oonpong – now 39 and nearly 30 years his junior – stole 10 million baht’s worth of vehicles, land deeds and other goods from Mr Pettersen. She was in collusion with a Thai policeman who was her latest love, claims the Norwegian.
He had earlier described his life as a “funeral without a body.”
Yesterday he spoke from Bohol in the Philippines where he is considering his next course of action. He now just has a Norwegian pension of $3,000 dollars a month to work with.
“My only hope now is the media,”he said. “I have not met any Thai lawyer who wants to go against police or judges. I have had no contact with my son and I feel like giving up.
“There is no rule of law for foreigners in Thailand.”
He called the Thai police “the most corrupt” and suggested they were driving round in one of his cars, a Mercedes-Benz.
In reference to the .38 gun that the police said was found in his car he claimed that it was in fact a weapon that belonged to his wife. He said it was made for her by the father of a friend of hers.
He said that he first met his wife when she was 32 and he had just turned 60. He trusted her at first but he said her character changed after she became pregnant.
She then had a relationship with a policeman. This was her second such relationship with a policeman. She had earlier abandoned a three year- old child claimed Mr Pettersen.
He is bitter about Thailand but is most concerned about his son. He said that he had heard nothing so in October he sent a teacher from the Philippines to go to his 6th birthday party.
“She heard that in school he cried easily,” he said of his little boy. “If I cannot get him away from his mother I have to forget,” he said in despair.
He said he was living in Bohol, renting an apartment, going to the gym and doing his best to look after himself.
Mr Pettersen said he was robbed of 10 million baht in valuables by his wife and her policeman lover who now apparently live apart.
Among his losses were the deeds to a large tract of land and a high end Nissan sports car and motorbikes. The Nissan has since been sold by his wife, he said.
But to add insult to injury he said that there was a rumour that the police were driving around in his Mercedes-Benz in the Tha Bo district of Nong Khai.
(Source:-ThaiVisa)