KOH SAMUI, Thailand (AP) A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two Myanmar migrants to death for the murder of two British backpackers on a resort island previous year, in a case that raised questions about police competence and the judicial system in Thailand.
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Protests have erupted in Myanmar after two citizens were sentenced to death in Thailand for murder. “That will live with us forever”, he said.
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Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, have denied killing David Miller, 24, and raping and then murdering Hannah Witheridge, 23.
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The accused, both bar workers, retracted their initial confessions, claiming police had tortured them, an allegation supported by human rights campaigners.
A cleaner heading home in the early hours of the morning of September 15 a year ago came across the battered bodies of the pair on Sairee Beach.
Around 1,000 people gathered in front of the Thai embassy, calling for the two to be freed.
Witheridge’s family, which was not present to hear the verdict, said they “had to endure a lot of painful and confusing information” during the trial.
Michael Miller said: ‘Like many people we initially unsure what to think when Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were detained as suspects.
“The prosecution case is marked by an absence of significant evidence needed to prove the guilt of the accused for crimes they are charged with”, the defence team said in a statement released this week.
“We are here just to demand justice for the two Myanmar nationals who were unfairly sentenced to death”, poet Aung Khun Sat told DPA.
However the Thai authorities have received an endorsement from Miller’s family who backed investigators after the verdict was announced, saying they believed the evidence against the two accused was “overwhelming”.
Speaking before the verdicts were announced, Andy Hall, an global affairs adviser with the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) which has represented the defendants said the two suspects felt “confident” about the hearing. The court ruled as groundless the defendants’ claims that they were tortured into confessing to the crimes during the interrogation process.
The group stressed the need for Thai authorities to “ensure the truth in a retrial that respects global human rights law and standards, so that the families of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller get the justice and peace of mind they deserve”.
The two Burmese workers were arrested a few weeks later, whereas the case made headlines in the United Kingdom and Thailand. If needed, the Myanmar government would appeal to the Thai Privy Council to commute the sentence, the President’s Office director Zaw Htay wrote in his Facebook message, according to the Irrawaddy website. “It’s unfair”, Min Thein Khaing said. “We urge you to pay an utmost attention to review this case and the verdict”.
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Witheridge’s family, who did not travel to Thailand for the verdicts, said the previous year had been an “unimaginably impossible time” and they would now be left to “digest the outcome of the trial”.
