Kim arrived last Friday on the island of Phuket in Thailand with her partner. The same place where on November 5, just a year ago, during their family vacation, his daughter Ceylan and her friend Nicholas, a 21-year-old American, were killed on a scooter by a car traveling at crazy speed. In this country, where part of Kim’s family lives, and where her daughter’s ashes were scattered, this stay takes on the air of a “pilgrimage”, she admits.
“It’s complicated, we saw each other again a year ago,” confides the mother, in tears. The fight keeps me on my feet. I won’t give up. It gives me all the energy to complete the procedure. Because it won’t go unpunished, it’s not possible. For Ceylon, justice must be done. It’s not bad luck’s fault. The punishment is not enough for two lives taken,” says the mother, convinced, in view of the videos and photos unearthed, that “it was not an accident. That’s my deep feeling.”
At first instance last February, the motorist responsible for the accident received a two-year suspended prison sentence. An unbearable decision for this mother. “It’s one year suspended for each life taken,” she fumes. If the appeal was accepted it could take another “six to eight months” for the criminal aspect, Kim estimates, and it will be even longer “for the civil”. A year after the tragedy, Kim would like the Russian motorist to “tell the truth. For what? What happened, what caused this?” she asks. “I want the driver to be punished for her action, that would relieve me because she has never shown regret and has not shown that she is aware of the harm she has done” .
During this trip, Kim and her partner visited the family and held a series of meetings related to the trial. “It’s about gathering information, providing documents and understanding why it takes so long. “It’s the procedure, it’s long, and the opposing party is using all the time allowed to delay things.” They will also go to places that Ceylan loved. “Thailand is Ceylon’s land of choice. We planned to come back there. In the next few days I will be going to Chang Mai, to the north, to her old school, where she grew up. I need it because she loved this city.”
For several periods between 2017 and 2019, the young Luxembourger returned to live in Thailand. Kim does not feel alone in her fight. “I have the feeling of being supported by friends, family, loved ones of course, but also by the Luxembourg authorities. As soon as I send an email to the embassy or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I receive quick responses. Even the consul comes to the news. If they could do more, they would.”
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