Japanese man saved from being killed by abductors

Tsunemi Watanabe, 56, was rescued after Tourist Police and officers from Thonglor Police raided an apartment at the Grand Hi-Tech Tower in Ekkamai Soi 23 in Watthana district in Bangkok late on Friday night.
Police arrested his three alleged abductors in the room – all of whom are Japanese nationals. They were identified as Masato Kobari, Reo Tsuruzoe and Kiyoto Miyata.
The alleged kidnappers have been charged with robbery, illegal detention and physical assault, Metropolitan Police chief Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathaworn said yesterday.
He said police were also investigating to determine if any Thai was involved in the crime.
Investigators were trying to determine if Kobari had any connection with the Japanese “Yakuza” underworld, as he was found to have large tattoos on his back and his left little finger was cut off – a known method of punishment among Japanese outlaws, according to a police source.
The kidnapped businessman was found tied with power cables to a bed inside room No 719 on the seventh floor of the building. He had been tortured and his right leg was broken, according to police. The man was rushed to Bumrungrad Hospital.
Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Pol Maj-General Suthee Nanekunnathee said that police believed Watanabe would have been killed if the rescue operation been delayed, as his captors had tortured him into revealing the PIN code of his credit card for drawing cash. The card was used to withdraw cash on Friday morning.
Suthee said the captors had already got a saw, adhesive tape, garbage bags and a large plastic sheet in the room.
He said the rescue operation was planned after the Japanese man’s Thai wife filed a complaint with police on Wednesday, saying Watanabe had left his house on Monday but not returned.
The wife and Watanabe’s friends told police the businessman might have been abducted by his Japanese friend, a construction contractor, with whom he had a long-running feud.
Watanabe’s wife, whose name has been withheld, said that the construction contractor had phoned her on Tuesday, telling her not to look for her husband.
Suthee said the police investigation showed a suspect in a white Toyota Vios driving to buy something at the front of Sukhumvit Soi 26. Police traced the car and managed to rescue the Japanese businessman.
Watanabe lives with his Thai wife in the Chaeng Wattana area. He received a phone call from Kiyoto on Monday evening to come to his room on Sukhumvit Soi 49 to discuss business.
A police source said the three captors beat Watanabe with a baseball ball bat until his right leg was broken to force him to reveal his credit-card PIN code.
The source said that Watanabe had conflicts with Kiyoto three years ago when he hired Kiyoto to renovate a house in Japan but Tsuruzoe, who was sub-contractor, failed to complete the project on time. Watanabe fined Kiyoto 10,000 yen (Bt3,000) a day for the delay. Later on, he suspected that Tsuruzoe had stolen valuables worth 15 million yen from the house so Watanabe filed complaints against them with Japanese police.