Australian sentenced to death in Thailand

Australian Antonio Bagnato, 28, has been sentenced to death by Pattaya court in Thailand for his involvement in the 2015 abduction and murder of Wayne Schneider. The verdict was read out on Tuesday to a packed courtroom as Bagnato stood shacked in leg irons on the dock.

Bagnato had plead not guilty to the November abduction and murder of Schneider despite police claims he was the mastermind of the abduction and killing, stating conflicts over a multi-million dollar drug network as motive for the crime. Schneider’s boys was found in a shallow grave 30 kilometres from the luxury villa where he was last seen alive, his neck was broken. Bagnato’s family described the verdict as ‘ridiculous’. Bagnato claims he was at a nightclub until 5an on the night of the murder, he says after he left he slept at a woman’s apartment. As well as being handed down the death penalty for murder and deprivation of liberty he was sentenced to a year in prison for hiding the body.

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