THAILAND’S Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentences of Myanmar migrant workers in the high-profile murder of two British backpackers on the popular tourist island of Koh Tao in 2014.
Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and of killing David Miller, 24.
The 2017 appeal decision was read to the two migrant workers and it took for nearly four hours at the court yesterday, according to U Htoo Chit, who is from the special investigation commission-3 to the case formed by Myanmar, and who was present at the court.
He said the committee for the two migrant workers would request the Myanmar governmentto seek a royal pardon from the King of Thailand.
Prosecutors insisted the evidence against the men from Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine State was clear, and a lower court upheld their conviction in 2017.
But during the proceedings, the defence said authorities mishandled the investigation and DNA evidence, not allowing independent analysis of samples and using confessions the pair said were coerced.
Police were accused of buckling to pressure to solve a crime that made global headlines and threatened to damage atourism sector that accounts for a fifth of Thailand’s economy.
Andy Hall, an international adviser to the defence, said the evidence against them was “unreliable”. “The death penalty sentence against the two accused and their conviction should be reversed and quashed,” said Andy Hall.—Pwint Thitsar
(Translated by GNLM)
