Pattaya, Thailand:
Pattaya Provincial Court has ordered two Thai men held without bail after they admitted most of nine charges in the killing of two young Russian siblings near Pattaya, while the alleged ringleader denied rape and both men denied premeditated murder. The hearing sits against a wider investigation that also uncovered the robbery-murders of a Thai family of three.
The court sat on black case No. A 1038/2569, brought by the Pattaya provincial prosecutor against Thana “Pong” Kerdthong, 43, and Thongchai “Thong” Srinil, 39. Prosecutors filed nine counts on the 30th of September as we covered here. The court accepted the indictment. The charges cover the deaths of Diana Nazimova, 22, and her brother Roman Nazimov, 17, whose bodies were recovered from a shallow grave in the Huai Yai area.
At the plea hearing, both defendants, appearing with counsel, pleaded guilty to firearms, ammunition, military-equipment and explosive offences; to impersonating officials; to unlawful detention; and to jointly concealing, moving or destroying the bodies to hide the deaths and their cause. They also admitted joint nighttime robbery by posing as police, wearing police-style clothing, carrying and using firearms, and using a vehicle, in circumstances that caused death.
Both denied jointly killing with premeditation in order to prepare for or facilitate another offence. On the count of joint rape by force of a victim unable to resist, committed with a firearm and resulting in death, Pong pleaded not guilty. Thong pleaded guilty.
Because part of the indictment remains contested, the court ordered the case into the criminal rights-protection process and set the next hearing for 9 a.m. on the 20th of October 2026. It remanded both men and refused temporary release, citing the severity of the possible sentences, the brazen alleged conduct, the prosecutor’s objection, and a risk of flight, interference with evidence, or other danger.
The Russian siblings
Diana and Roman had lived in Thailand with their mother since 2021. They left home on a Honda ADV 150 at about 4 a.m. on the 26th of July to go to a convenience store and did not return. Their mother reported them missing. Investigators later found the motorcycle dismantled and buried near an old cemetery in Huai Yai.
Police arrested Pong and Thong on the 31st of July while they were hiding in a longan orchard in the Wang Sombun district of Sa Kaeo, near the Cambodian border. They were taken to a forested area near Wat Yan Sangwararam and Map Fak Thong hill, where the siblings’ remains were recovered from a grave about one metre deep. Roman had gunshot wounds. Diana showed signs of assault.
Early accounts differed. Police and Thai media reported that the pair said they had targeted the motorcycle. When the siblings resisted, Pong allegedly shot Roman and fatally beat Diana. Thong told investigators that Pong killed the siblings and forced him to help bury the bodies. Pong admitted an assault aimed at stealing the motorcycle and denied any sexual assault. Those accounts have not been tested at trial.
The Thai family
The same arrests opened a second case. Suspects directed officers to a coconut grove about two kilometres away, in Village 10, Huai Yai, where police found the bodies of a Thai family reported missing since late June: Wichian Wongsa, about 53; his wife Chantana Chat-in, about 50; and their daughter Nichapha Wongsa, about 18. Relatives had filed a missing-person report at Huai Yai police station after searching for about a month.
According to police accounts carried by us here at The Pattaya News, the group posed as officers, entered the home on a pretext linked to drugs or debts, handcuffed the victims, robbed them and shot them. Pong is alleged to have said he shot the father. He claimed an accomplice known as Ball killed the mother and daughter. The bodies were then taken to a pit roughly three metres deep, shot again, and buried one on top of another.
Two further suspects, Chatchanan “Fluke” Pan-iam and Atsadang “Ball” Chuwong, were arrested in connection with the wider inquiry. Investigators have treated the cases as linked but are proceeding on separate files. Chonburi police have rejected online claims that any of the four men are related to, or operationally tied to, police officers.
The family’s younger sister spoke publicly after the grave was found through the Russian inquiry.
Police later clarified the investigation here.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited the sites and pledged a full investigation, citing damage to Thailand’s tourism image. The state later paid 300,000 baht in compensation to each set of heirs, 1.5 million baht in total.
The main suspect’s record
Pong, a Huai Yai resident, has prior firearms and attempted-murder convictions. Court records show a 2018 arrest warrant after he fired into a shophouse in Soi Kok Lang, wounding a man. He was convicted, served a little over seven years, and was released in early June 2026, weeks before the siblings disappeared. Pattaya Special Prison has said he was previously held there and was moved to Rayong Central Prison after a violent incident with other inmates in 2021.
Possible penalties
The nine counts on the Russian siblings’ indictment include illegal possession of firearms and ammunition; carrying firearms and explosives in public; impersonating police; unlawful detention; aggravated nighttime robbery while posing as officials, using firearms and a vehicle, resulting in death, together with premeditated murder; rape by force while the victim was unable to resist, involving a firearm and resulting in death, together with premeditated murder and cruelty; and concealing or destroying corpses.
Under the Thai Penal Code, ordinary murder is punishable by death, life imprisonment, or 15 to 20 years. Aggravated murder under Section 289, which covers premeditated killing and killing to prepare for or facilitate another offence, carries the death penalty. Rape that causes death is punishable by death or life imprisonment. Robbery causing death is likewise among the most serious robbery offences and can draw death or life imprisonment. Concealing a body and firearms offences carry separate prison terms.
We have previously reported that the charges could lead to the death penalty, which relatives of the Thai victims have demanded. Guilty pleas on some counts may narrow the trial, but the contested murder and rape allegations still require proof. A conviction on the aggravated counts would leave the court with the statutory penalties above. Thailand retains the death penalty, though executions have been rare in recent years.
The Russian siblings’ case returns to court on the 20th of October for the rights-protection hearing before proceedings continue on the counts that remain denied. The Thai family’s killings remain a separate prosecution.