Thai court upholds death penalty for British backpacker murders
Thailand’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by two Myanmar migrants sentenced to death for the murder of two British backpackers on a resort island in 2014.
Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin had denied killing David Miller and raping and killing Hannah Witheridge. Their battered bodies were found on the morning of 15 September, 2014, on a beach on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.
Lawyers for the two convicted men had claimed the evidence in the case was mishandled and that they made confessions under duress that they later retracted, raising questions about police competence and the judicial system in Thailand.
In a ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed allegations of physical misand treatment and mishandling of forensic evidence, saying the forensic work was handled by respectable institutions and it found no proof of torture.
Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, and Miller, 24, from Jersey, had come to Thailand separately and met at the hotel where both were staying.
The two myanmar men, both 22 at the time, were employed as service workers on the island, which is famous for its diving locations.
The Thai lawyer for the defendants contended they were provided with inadequate translators when talking to police, in addition to being physically abused into making confessions.
A well-known Thai forensics expert also testified at the trial that the DNA evidence that was a major element of the prosecution’s case did not link the defendants to the scene. The expert also alleged that police had failed to properly control the crime scene mishandled the DNA evidence.
The court rejected the defence arguments and in December 2015 convicted both defendants of murder and sentenced them to death.
Human Rights Watch at the time called the verdict “profoundly disturbing,” citing the defendants’ accusations of police torture that were never investigated and questionable DNA evidence.
The killings and doubts that Wai Phyo, also known as Win Zaw Htun, and Zaw Lin were the actual perpetrators cast a shadow on Koh Tao’s reputation. A series of deaths there of other foreign tourists – played up by British tabloids, which call Koh Tao “death island” – continue to contribute to unease about the case.
Independent investigations of the murders suggest powerful figures on the island were responsible, and the two migrant workers were made scapegoats for a crime they didn’t commit.
The two defendants, dressed in light brown prison attire, were brought from a maximum security prison to the Nonthaburi provincial court, just north of Bangkok. Two judges took turns in reading the Supreme Court’s ruling.
An interpreter made available via video link translated the summary of the decision into Burmese, the language of the defendants. It took three hours to read the 69-page ruling. Both defendants were also found guilty of rape, along with illegally entering and residing in Thailand, and Wai Phyo was also convicted of stealing Miller’s phone and sunglasses.