Kim
Ruben Husby talks to an official after being beaten by police
volunteers.
Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya traffic police volunteers beat a Norwegian
man and allegedly threatened witnesses who captured the assault on
video.
Kim Ruben Husby, 24, filed a complaint at Pattaya
Police headquarters June 12 against the group of uniformed and
plain-clothes volunteers who collectively beat him on Soi Bongkot.
Husby said he’d been having a vehement argument with
his 34-year-old girlfriend outside a pork restaurant when the police
volunteers intervened. The Norwegian said one officer put him in a
headlock and, when he escaped, the entire group fell on him in a pack.
He complained to full-time traffic police and
supervisors, but the volunteers were released without reprimand, said
Husby, who came to Pattaya Police Station with a swollen face and cut
above his eye.
The assault took place in front of a full crowd of
onlookers, with at least one witness capturing the beating on video.
However, one witness said he deleted the video after the same police
volunteers threatened him to get rid of the incriminating evidence.
Pattaya Police officials pledged to question the officers involved.
