THE National Crime Agency assisted the Thai police with a murder investigation that put two Burmese migrants on death row, despite government rules stopping British law enforcement agencies contributing to capital punishment convictions overseas.
Officers from the NCA passed on mobile phone evidence that would play a key part in the prosecution of Wai Physo and Zaw Lin, who were sentenced to death for the murder of two UK backpackers, BuzzFeed reported.
Concerns over allegations the two Burmese men were forced to confess under torture have previously been expressed by the Foreign Office and Amnesty International.
Unless they have ministerial permission, British police are not allowed to supply evidence to foreign authorities that use capital punishment without assurances the suspects will not be sentenced to death. But documents seen by BuzzFeed and sources close to the case suggest the NCA passed on the information linking the Burmese suspects to the murder of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge without seeking written assurances that it would not be used to sentence them to death.
Neither the Foreign Office nor the Home Office would comment on whether ministers had allowed the NCA to assist the Thai police. The two Burmese men, both 22, are appealing against their death sentences and claim they were framed by the Thai police and coerced into confessing.
The bodies of Ms Witheridge, from Hemsby, Norfolk, and Mr Miller, from St Helier, Jersey, were found on Sairee beach on Koh Tao on the morning of September 15 2014. Ms Witheridge, 23, had been raped and battered to death with a garden hoe. Mr Miller was left to drown in the sea after being beaten unconscious. BuzzFeed says the NCA received an urgent request from Thai police for the serial number of Mr Miller’s missing iPhone.
The NCA is believed to have verbally passed the serial number on to the Thai police but without securing a written assurance that it would not be used in court. The NCA refused to comment on the Thai murder investigation.