Two other people were sentenced to life in prison for the 2023 murder and dismemberment of a German businessman
PUBLISHED: December 21, 2024 at 2:12 p.m
Police cordoned off a house in Nong Prue township, Bang Lamung district, Chon Buri, in July 2023, where the body of German real estate agent Hans Peter Mack was found in a freezer. (File photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong)
A member of the Outlaws The Motorcycle Club was sentenced to death and two others were sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome murder of a German real estate agent whose dismembered body was found in a freezer Pattaya last year.
The Pattaya Provincial Court on Friday initially handed down death sentences to all three defendants involved in the murder of 62-year-old Hans Peter Walter Mack in July last year. The murder shocked the public and made international headlines.
Since two of them confessed, the court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.
Mack's dismembered body was found in a freezer at a house in tambon Nong Prue in Bang Lamung district on July 10 last year by detectives who followed up on clues from surveillance camera videos. He had not been seen by his family since July 4th.
The investigators then arrested two German nationals – Olaf Thorsten (52) and Petra Christl Grundgreif (54) – as well as a Pakistani with Thai nationality, Zahrouk Kareem Uddin (27). They were accused of complicity in theft and murder.
According to police, the trio kidnapped and murdered Mack before transferring 3.35 million baht from the victim's bank account
When questioned, the three denied any involvement. However, the police handling the case confirmed that they had sufficient evidence to bring charges.
After receiving the police report, prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder and hiding a corpse.
During the trial, Brinkmann and Ms. Grundgreif, defendants 1 and 2, confessed to the crimes. Because their confessions were useful, the court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. Uddin protested his innocence.
In a similar case, the court sentenced another German suspect, identified only as Enrico, to six years in prison for money laundering and receiving stolen property after he accepted money transfers related to Brinkmann's crime.
