Thai police say they’re investigating passport ring
Print Edition
Thai police say they are investigating a “passport ring” as details emerged of bookings made in Thailand with stolen European passports for the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight.
Two Europeans - Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi, of Italy - were listed on the passenger manifest of the MH370 flight, but neither man boarded, officials said.
Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two years.
Malaysia has launched a terror probe into the suspect passengers and the United States has sent FBI officers to assist.
Flight information seen by reporters shows tickets were booked in Maraldi and Kozel’s names on March 6 and issued in the Thai city of Pattaya, a popular beach resort south of the capital Bangkok. The e-ticket numbers for their flights are consecutive and both were paid for in Thai baht.
Each ticket cost THB20,215 (US$625).
Kozel was booked to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, then on to Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Maraldi was booked on the same flights until Amsterdam, where he was to continue to Copenhagen.
A telephone operator on a China-based KLM hotline confirmed that both were booked to leave Beijing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam on Saturday.
The pair booked tickets through China Southern Airlines.
Having onward reservations to Europe from Beijing would have meant the pair, as holders of EU passports, would not have needed China visas.
A Thai police official said authorities were investigating a passport racket on the resort island of Phuket, where Maraldi’s passport was stolen.
“A police team combined with local police and immigration are working to track down a passport ring,” Panya Mamen said.
A Phuket official said Maraldi had presented himself to police there yesterday.
A spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry said Kozel’s passport had been stolen on a flight from Phuket to Bangkok.
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