Investigation needed into ‘torture’ claims of Thailand backpacker murderers

A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two Myanmar migrants to death for murdering two British backpackers found bludgeoned on a resort island previous year, a gruesome crime that focused global attention on tourist safety and police conduct in the country.

Police eventually arrested and charged Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun also known as Wai Phyo.

Amnesty International called for an independent investigation into allegations the Myanmar men were tortured, adding that police in Thailand had a “long and disturbing track record” of using torture to extract “confessions”.

Prosecutors said DNA evidence collected from cigarette butts, a condom and the bodies of the victims, linked Lin and Phyo to the killings. “What happened to Hannah Witheridge is unspeakable”, he said.

“We respect this court and its decision completely”.

Mr Miller said that after hearing the evidence during the trial he believed the Thai police investigation was “not the so-called shambles it was made out to be”.

“Let’s show the world that Myanmar and Thai journalists will fight together for justice, human rights and democratic values”, it said in its letter.

Thai court delivered its verdict.

“But they’re both confident that they will be acquitted by the court… they said that whatever the result they will stay strong and they will move forward into the future” Andy Hall of the Migrant Worker Rights Network told AFP.

The court found Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun guilty of many crimes, including murder, sexual violation of the female victim, and theft.

Police recovered the murder weapon – a short-handled garden hoe – from a small garden bed nearby.

It cited a lawyer from the Burmese embassy’s legal team who said he had been told that police had beaten one suspect and “threatened him with electrocution”.

Wason Wanichakorn/AP Sue Miller, Ian Miller (l.) and Michael Miller (c.), family members of slain British backpacker David Miller, speak to reporters outside of the court in Koh Samui, Thailand, Thursday.

They said the University of Essex, where Miss Witheridge was studying speech and language therapy, had introduced an award for “clinical excellence” in her memory. “We found listening to proceedings very challenging and we have had to endure a lot of painful and confusing information”. An expert witness testified that the hoe contained DNA from two males, but not the suspects.

When the court told the police to produce the DNA samples used to incriminate the defendants, they initially said the samples had been destroyed.

Although the allegations of torture were dismissed by a judge during the case, the Thai National Human Rights Commission has concluded that the men’s claims were credible. “What the hell? DNA doesn’t match and still death sentence?” While authorities have committed to moving towards abolition of capital punishment during 2015 the number of offences punishable by the death penalty has increased.

According to the Thai Corrections Department there are 456 prisoners on death row in Thailand and the last execution was carried out in 2009.