The court verdict has prompted harsh reactions from rights groups.
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Two men have been found guilty of brutally murdering two young British backpackers on an idyllic Thai holiday island past year and have now been sentenced to death.
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Pakistan accuses India of using spies in Afghanistan to help foment insurgency in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan border province. High-level talks were twice called off and violence has flared along the countries’ disputed, heavily militarized border.
The defence team claim the defendants’ confessions “came about involuntarily from torture or abuse that made them fear for their lives” in the context of “systematic abuse” of migrants on Koh Tao.
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Approximately 9,800 United States troops remain in the country and are involved in training or advisory roles. The Province borders Pakistan and has been cited as an important poppy-growing region for Taliban militants.
Miss Witheridge had been raped while Mr Miller died after being hit over the head before drowning in the sea.
Defence lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat said he respected the court ruling but added that the defendants would file an appeal within a month.
Their battered bodies were found on a beach on the southern diving resort of Koh Tao in September previous year. Miller also suffered blows to his head.
Prosecutors say the evidence against the men is rock solid including DNA traces found on Witheridge’s body as well as the suspects being in possession of Miller’s phone and sunglasses.
“We believe what happened today represents justice for Hannah and David”, said Miller.
Flanked by his parents as he spoke outside the court, Michael Miller – the brother of the slain David – said “justice” had been served. No last hugs. No goodbyes. He irreplaceable to us.
Last October, Zaw Lin told a criminal court that a police interpreter had told him that he would be killed if he refused to “confess” to the crime, in which case he was told he would be imprisoned “only for four or five years”.
After Britain’s Foreign Office expressed concern to Thai authorities about the way the investigation was being conducted, British police were allowed to observe the case assembled by their Thai counterparts.
The police probe was dogged by accusations of incompetence, especially in the hours after the bodies were found with officers failing to seal off the crime scene or close the island’s port. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were arrested two weeks after the murder, when the police were under heavy pressure to solve the crime.
The judge said there was no weight to the two men’s claims that they had been tortured during interrogation by police.
Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin previously confessed to the murders of Witheridge and Miller, but later retracted their statements, saying they were “tortured” into making them.
“Like many people we were initially unsure what to think when Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were detained as suspects”, he said.
The debate over DNA samples that police say linked the two suspects to Witheridge was core to the trial.
Expert Pornthip Rojanasunan said police, who have their own forensic department, had only examined the fingerprints found on the hoe but not the DNA.
Human Rights Watch called for the verdict to be reviewed in a “transparent and fair appeal process”.
Around 2.5 million Burmese migrants work in the richer neighbouring country, many in the fishing and construction industries or as domestic helpers or cleaners in hotels and restaurants.
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“We didn’t know what to believe”.
