Thread: Two Tourists Brutally Murdered on Koh Tao, One Raped: Police Spark Thailand Manhunt

Myanmar Legal Team to Appeal Verdict Against Migrant Workers in Thailand’s Highest Court

The Myanmar government is sending a special legal team to file a second appeal of the verdict against two migrant workers from the country who were sentenced to death in Thailand for the 2014 murder of a British couple at a Thai resort, their lawyer said Wednesday.

Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, both in their early 20s, were sentenced to death by a Thai court on Dec. 24, 2015, after being found guilty of the murder of British backpacker David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of his companion Hannah Witheridge, 23, on the resort island of Koh Tao in September 2014.

A government legal team had filed an appeal with a lower court but it was rejected on Feb. 23 of this year, though the news was not made public. The men’s lawyers and activists found out about it a week later.

The death sentences can be revoked under an amnesty or be changed into a minimum punishment because the highest court in Thailand cannot impose capital punishment without solid evidence, their lawyer Aung Myo Thant told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“The state is giving us full support,” he said. “It is sending a legal advisory team to provide assistance for when the new appeal is submitted to Thailand’s highest court. Right now, we are translating the documents from the First Appeals Court from Thai into the Burmese language.”

A Thai Foreign Office official said the Myanmar legal team must submit new facts in its appeal, Aung Myo said, adding that those working on the case are studying a 4,000-page report about the crime.

“We need to request that the deadline for the new appeal be postponed because the 30-day deadline for filing it after the sentencing is not enough time,” he said.

“We are working with the Myanmar Lawyers Network to extend the deadline,” Aung Myo said. “Under Thai law, the appeal deadline can be extended a month at a time based on reasonable facts.”

One of the questionable facts in the case is the principal murder weapon, which court documents list as a hoe, he said.

“But the DNA of the two suspects was not found on that hoe,” he said, adding that a Thai doctor told the court that DNA could be found if a person holds something for just five seconds.

“We can take up this issue in our new appeal,” Aung Myo said. “We know this highest court where we are submitting our appeal is a very free and impartial court, and we expect to get the truth and a fair result.”

Though Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun at first admitted to the crime, they later recanted, saying they had made their confession under duress.

Hundreds in Myanmar staged protests in late December 2015 calling for the pair to be freed, saying the men were scapegoats in a botched Thai police investigation of the crime.

At the same time, Myanmar human rights officials appealed to their counterparts in Thailand to ensure that two remained protected by the law while they appealed their verdict.

Myanmar Legal Team to Appeal Verdict Against Migrant Workers in Thailand?s Highest Court

Good luck to them...

^ Ditto... chook dee krup!

Their lawyers have until 23 May to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
A Thai appeal court upheld the death sentences given to the two men in March.


Lawyers had been given 30 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, Thailand's final court of appeal.
The men claim DNA evidence used to secure their conviction was unsound and a forensic investigator previously testified that evidence had been improperly collected.
Lawyers for the convicted men have said they can still challenge the verdict, but because the defence team claims it is working on such limited resources they need more time to prepare a large amount of technical documents.

Thai beach murders: Convicted men given longer to appeal - BBC News

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

the defence team claims it is working on such limited resources they need more time to prepare a large amount of technical documents.

Where did all the money go ?..............

The mother of a young Belgian backpacker found dead and reportedly half-eaten by lizards at a notorious Thai resort dubbed “death island” has questioned a police account that her daughter hanged herself.

Elise Dallemange, 30, was found dead in the jungle of Koh Tao island eight days after she said she was leaving to return to Belgium.

The death on Koh Tao,]which occurred in April but was only made public on Thursday, is the latest in a string of seven cases of tourists found dead on the island in the last three years.

Investigators have now been ordered to reopen the investigation after Dallemange’s mother Michele van Egten cast doubt on their initial conclusion.

Dallemange had been living at a yoga and tantra retreat in between travelling around Asia, India and Australia for two years. She lived with a self-proclaimed “guru” and had joined a group linked to the Indian Sathya Sai Baba movement, which has been accused of being cult.

The young backpacker told Ms van Egten on April 17 that she was coming home, and booked a ticket to Bangkok.

Her distraught mother now claims she does not believe police reports that Dallemange hanged herself from a tree. Reports suggest that no suicide note was found.

“We fear somebody else was involved,” she said. “I cannot accept why my daughter should have killed herself.”

She added that her daughter had been “normal” during their last conversation and that “no signs of depression were visible.”

Koh Tao police chief, Lieutenant Colonel Chokchai Suthimek, was angry when contacted by The Telegraph.

“There is no sign of murder,” he said, referring to the autopsy report which has not yet been sent to Ms van Egten. In an earlier press briefing he said forensics showed Dallemange died from lack of oxygen as a result of a rope. He denied she has been eaten by animals.

“They call this death island non-stop. They paint it that way,” he said. “We work so hard. When there is a dead body we’re not just sitting on it.”

Mother of Belgian backpacker found 'eaten by lizards' on Thai 'death island' questions suicide verdict

Myanmar men appeal against death sentences over British murders in Thailand

21 Aug 2017 12:10PM
(Updated: 21 Aug 2017 01:30PM)

BANGKOK: Two men from Myanmar convicted of killing two British backpackers on a Thai holiday island in 2014 submitted their final appeal on Monday against the death sentence.



The murder of tourists Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, sent shockwaves around Thailand and the world, because of the nature of their deaths and the fact the killings took place on an island popular with tourists.

Some migrant rights groups accused Thai police of bungling the investigation and failing to properly seal off the crime scene. Police have defended the probe and the families of both victims have spoken out in defence of the police investigation.

Witheridge was raped and murdered and Miller was beaten and killed. Their bodies were found on a beach on the southern island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.

Myanmar migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun lost an appeal in March to have their sentence overturned after they were convicted by a court on Koh Samui island in December 2015.

"The deadline is today so we have to submit it. This is the final chance to appeal," Nakhon Chomphuchat, head of the pair's defence team, told Reuters.

The 2015 conviction was mired in controversy with supporters of the two migrant workers arguing that they had been framed and that they had initially confessed to the crimes under duress.

During the trial, police investigators handling the case were accused by the defence of failing to properly collect and test DNA samples from the scene of the crime.

Prosecutors argued that evidence against the pair was rock solid.

Capital punishment has not been carried out in Thailand for many years

Read more at Myanmar men appeal against death sentences over British murders in Thailand - Channel NewsAsia

Capital punishment has not been carried out in Thailand for many years

well, not officially it hasnt.

As I recall, the appeal was almost 200 pages long, detailing how the evidence wasn't collected or preserved in manner that could be used to definitely accuse someone of murder and then murder them for the murder.

iirc the panel of judges that decided that they were guilty (there was no jury) used their confession to find them guilty, stating that as they had confessed all other issues were irrelevant.

Money replaces all morals in Thailand . . .

The six words that sealed Koh Tao suspects? fate

The Prime Minister and head of the military junta declared that he looked at the evidence and they were guilty as charged, before the panel of 3 judges came to the same verdict in a courtroom. The amount of baht needed to save them was a few trillion zeros short.

^^ The real murderer's family had much more...

Thai justice at it's best.

Originally Posted by Les Miserabled

But they had money.
A huge defense fund was raised, mostly by western donations .

The money raised for the defense of the two men did not go into the important pockets. You know, the pockets that could have made a difference like they did for the bar owners.

Latest news.

UK police broke law in case of British backpackers murdered in Thailand
Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent


Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were murdered on the island of Koh Tao in September 2014. Photograph: PA /The Guardian

National Crime Agency breached rules by passing information to Thai police that led to death sentences, high court rules

LONDON: -- The National Crime Agency in the UK has been forced to admit it acted unlawfully when it gave information to Thai police that helped send two men to death row for murdering two British backpackers.

The NCA supplied phone record evidence and intelligence to investigators in Thailand following the September 2014 murders of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, on the island of Koh Tao.

Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both Burmese nationals, were convicted of the murders in 2015 after a trial which the anti-death penalty group Reprieve said was unfair. They face execution by lethal injection, and claim to have been tortured.

On Tuesday, the high court in London found against the NCA – Britain’s version of the FBI – in a case brought by lawyers for Lin and Phyo.

Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ed-in-thailand

-- The Guardian 2017-08-30

^ Won't make any difference the poor blokes were doomed as soon as cops grabbed them.

Hum the 2 burmeses admitted right from the start they were in the area, and as the article says they were also other people around .

The selected use of evidences isn't UK authorities' doing thought, this is Thai Police and court's responsibility.

When that sleazy, slimy prick Liam Fox trawled his stinking arse around the Philippines earlier this year in a bid to boost post-Brexshit commerce, he announced to his host, the psychopathic murdering beast President Duterte and the attendant press, that Britain and
the Philippines shared " common values ".

I rather think we know now what he meant. Institutional law breaking by government apparatchiks is indeed a British "value".

So what exactly was that "phone record evidence and intelligence" ???

I see a reference to " the data from Miller’s phone", but WTF ? Had he SMSd someone to say that some creepy Burmese guys were stalking him, or something ? What details haven't we been told yet ?

Originally Posted by Latindancer

So what exactly was that "phone record evidence and intelligence" ???

I see a reference to " the data from Miller’s phone", but WTF ? Had he SMSd someone to say that some creepy Burmese guys were stalking him, or something ? What details haven't we been told yet ?

Probably some BS that they'll spout about being able to track it to where they conveniently found it as the GPS and mobile data or whatever were turned on.

Originally Posted by Latindancer

So what exactly was that "phone record evidence and intelligence" ???

I see a reference to " the data from Miller’s phone", but WTF ? Had he SMSd someone to say that some creepy Burmese guys were stalking him, or something ? What details haven't we been told yet ?

Thai cops used her phone data as evidence that she was in the vicinity of where she died. No shit. But it was actually used to "prove" that she was in the vicinity of where the two Burmese admitted they were.
What the thai cops didn't do, though, was use that same data to show she was in the vicinity of other possible suspects too. As mentioned above, selective use of the evidence.

David Miller was a man.

Fair enough. The report on the British court case I read spoke of Hannah's phone data.