Exclusive: Critical evidence used to sentence two Burmese bar workers to death last year for the brutal murder of two British backpackers in the Thai resort of Koh Tao was secretly supplied by Britain’s elite crime-fighting agency.

The National Crime Agency secretly assisted the Royal Thai Police with a controversial murder investigation that put two Burmese migrants on death row despite government rules designed to stop British law enforcement contributing to capital punishment convictions overseas.

BuzzFeed News can reveal that mobile phone evidence handed over by officers from Britain’s elite crime-fighting force played a central part in the prosecution of Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, who were sentenced to death on Christmas Eve for the murders of British backpackers David Miller and Hannah Witheridge in Koh Tao.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomwarren/how-the-nca-helped-put-two-men-on-death-row?bftwuk&utm_term=.pt9RN5D11#.opRLZREXX

A post violating Fair Use Policy has been removed.

Something stinks here...

Just waiting for that announcement that some UK firm has won a big trade deal.

More from BFN:

"The NCA deemed the situation time-critical and rapidly made the “exceptional” decision to retrieve the serial number for Miller’s phone and pass it on to Thai police verbally. Because of concerns about the use of capital punishment, they did so on the basis that it was for intelligence purposes only and not to be used to prosecute the two suspects. However, no written assurance was secured that it would not be used in court.

The serial number immediately became a critical piece of evidence. It proved that a smashed iPhone found on a property linked to the two Burmese migrants had belonged to Miller — thus linking the victim to the suspects."

I have very severe doubts about the wiseness of allowing a group to form secret neworks through the world based on rumor and suspician rather than proved or provable guilt with no or little oversight. Many people have been arrested in thailand on the basis of being suspects and deperted only for it to be found that they merely shared the same name as someone else. I have no problem with convicted criminals or those who had warrents that could be proved in court being shared but it should be open and subject to controls. The police are becoming above the law in many countries.

Now running in News http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/895293-evidence-from-uks-national-crime-agency-critical-in-sentencing-koh-tao-killers-to-death/

Let's continue there, thanks for the heads-up.