Thai police have arrested two Swedish nationals as prime suspects in the murder of a compatriot earlier this week on Phuket Island

Thai police have arrested two Swedish nationals as prime suspects in the murder of a compatriot earlier this week on Phuket Island, police said Thursday.
Phuket police arrested Tommy Viktor Soderlund, 26, and Johan Sebastian Ljung, 26, on Tuesday, a day after the death of Russian-born Swede Maksim Schantz, 25.
'The two Swedes have confessed to the murder of Schantz and if found guilty could face a maximum sentence of life in prison,' said Police Colonel Komol Wattraporn, Phuket's deputy chief of police.
According to their testimony, Soderlund and Ljung traced Schantz to Phuket, 600 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, via his Facebook page and followed him to the island on a mission of revenge.
They said they had previously worked with Schantz running an internet scam in Pattaya, a Thai beach resort situated 100 kilometres east of Bangkok, involving selling shoddy products via their website.
Schantz had allegedly informed Pattaya police of the swindle, leading to the arrest of Soderlund on charges of working in Thailand without the proper permits.
After Soderlund was released from Pattaya prison, the two Swedes tracked Schantz down to Phuket three weeks ago, and equipped with a knife, gun and rope, attacked him Monday night with the intent of taking him back to his rented house.
When Schantz put up a fight, Ljung allegedly stabbed him in the neck, killing him.
The two Swedes fled the scene but were caught the next day at the Surin Sweet Hotel on Surin beach.
According to their pasports, Soderlund and Ljung had been living in Thailand on tourist visas for about three years, Komol said in a telephone inetyrview with the German

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