Myanmar men appeal against death sentences over British murders in Thailand

[bannork]

8 minutes ago, mdmayes said:

Death Island will again live up to its name and take two more INNOCENT lives by executing these men. Shame on Thailand for allowing such an injustice to happen.

They will never be executed even if found guilty by The Supreme Court.

[Krenjai]

2 minutes ago, bannork said:

They will never be executed even if found guilty by The Supreme Court.

Correct, and they will never be released either even if the real killers would come forward.

 

[bannork]

4 minutes ago, Krenjai said:

Correct, and they will never be released either even if the real killers would come forward.

 

They could well be quietly sent back to Myanmar after the dust has settled, ie public interest moved on.

[Dogmatix]

6 hours ago, aslimversgwm said:

Exactly correct. Hannah's sister stated she had been threatened by the mobsters on the island and her family have never agreed with the verdict. 

 

Hannah's sister was also threatened by the mobsters in brown in Bangkok. The then police chief threatened to charge her with criminal defamation and under the Computer Crimes Act over a Facebook post where she expressed doubts over the police investigation and the convictions. 

 

It made no difference to him that she was unlikely to ever return to Thailand after what happened to her sister and the treatment she and her family received from Thai police or that these crimes do not exist in the UK and are therefore not extraditable.  

[Dogmatix]

The pro bono legal team made a lot of encouraging noises but stuffed up the first trial and the appeal badly.  Let's hope they did a better job on this final appeal.  

 

It's a tough job though.  This case would have been thrown out of any Western court for a number of reasons including, to name but a few: lack of 'Miranda' rights; probable torture by police; the imposition of a totally unqualified and hostile translator who allegedly participated in police beatings; failure to provide the suspects with independent legal counsel; no lawyer representing them at police questioning; forensic evidence only analysed by police lab, not by an independent certified pathologist; police lab not accredited; forensic evidence analysed without proper records showing how matches were obtained and without chain of custody of samples; failure to provide prosecution evidence to defence counsel before trial.       

[rockingrobin]

1 hour ago, bannork said:

Strands of blonde hair were found between the fingers of one of the hands of Hannah if I remember right. The police never identified who they belonged to.

The blonde hair is interesting

Apparently it still had its root attached , but was insufficient to test for dna. However the hair is still forensically usefull as testing of the strand can determine racial factors. recall the comments that the perpetrators dna was of mongoliod or asian , and the fact that there is no genetic dna marker that identifies race

[greenchair]

2 hours ago, TheLobster said:

There are many things we could end up going over and over again, I think this summarises the situation concisely:

 

The verdict was handed down by the Koh Samui Township Court in December 2015, and the 2 men lost their appeal to the District Court of Appeal in March 2017.

 

In its ruling, made secretly on Feb. 23, the Koh Samui court said evidence presented by the state in the original trial was adequate and reliable, and therefore declined to overturn the December 2015 verdict condemning two Myanmar men to die for the deaths of two British tourists.
“We will definitely petition the Supreme Court,” defense lawyer Nakhon Chompuchart said Wednesday afternoon, adding that he could not comment further because he had not yet seen the decision.
Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, migrant workers on the island, were convicted of the September 2014 murders of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge largely on the basis of DNA traces police said were recovered from the crime scene and Witheridge’s body. No other physical evidence or witness testimony directly linked them to the crime.

 

Your posted article is based on personal opinion. 

In the more accurate court documents,  the judge himself said whilst summing up, the decision was based not only on dna but evidences and extraordinary circumstances together with the dna that made up a whole picture.

The other evidences included possession of the victims phone and their clothing at the beach, and video footage that showed them near the scene at the time of the crime.  The judge said The evidence,confirmation of video footage was corroborated in the testimony of the b2 and their explaination to it all was extremely hard to believe. 

 

 

[mommysboy]

54 minutes ago, bannork said:

They could well be quietly sent back to Myanmar after the dust has settled, ie public interest moved on.

I rather suspect this would have already happened had it not been for the media storm.

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, Gregster said:

The way I read the article below is that freaking 7 more foreigners have died in mysterious circumstances on Death Island whilst the 2 Burmese kids have been behind bars?!

If so why can't some International humanity org lobby the Thai king for the release of the (obviously innocent) Burmese 2?


https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3953216/koh-tao-death-island-mystery-brit-mafia-threatened-hang-frame-murder-tourist/


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

It's very interesting; I wish he'd come forward and make a statement to the police, after all he's let the cat out the bag now.

 

But whilst this implicates significant others (something many suspect anyway), it does not clear the Burmese 2. 

[frank83628]

yes, sean mc anna, the attention seeking peado, he should be taken as gospel, the story form the sun is once again an old story reprinted trying to look like its something new.

[TheLobster]

28 minutes ago, greenchair said:

Your posted article is based on personal opinion. 

In the more accurate court documents,  the judge himself said whilst summing up, the decision was based not only on dna but evidences and extraordinary circumstances together with the dna that made up a whole picture.

The other evidences included possession of the victims phone and their clothing at the beach, and video footage that showed them near the scene at the time of the crime.  The judge said The evidence,confirmation of video footage was corroborated in the testimony of the b2 and their explaination to it all was extremely hard to believe. 

 

 

In the 'more accurate court documents' they took the police statements as gospel without 'credible evidence' and ignored 'credible evidence' such as the UK Autopsy report. You are misleading people and have done so for a long time.

 

There was not a bit of creditable evidence presented, the circumstantial evidence doesn't warrant the verdict, the appeal was to the same court/district. There is more evidence that they were not guilty than they are guilty. In Thailand no one likes to lose face by admitting they were wrong so now we have the snowball effect. Hopefully this latest appeal will be reviewed by someone with some balls.

[coconuthead]

it's common knowledge on the island what happened that night.

 

 

[wakeupplease]

5 hours ago, bannork said:

They could well be quietly sent back to Myanmar after the dust has settled, ie public interest moved on.

Untill the real culprits are named and shamed the dust will not settle and Thailand will suffer until it gives up these people animals mind you that is an insult to the animal population.

[wakeupplease]

5 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

 

Hannah's sister was also threatened by the mobsters in brown in Bangkok. The then police chief threatened to charge her with criminal defamation and under the Computer Crimes Act over a Facebook post where she expressed doubts over the police investigation and the convictions. 

 

It made no difference to him that she was unlikely to ever return to Thailand after what happened to her sister and the treatment she and her family received from Thai police or that these crimes do not exist in the UK and are therefore not extraditable.  

You are 100% correct in your post.

 

I would just like to confirm your statement on the Thai Computer Crimes Act

 

It is looked upon by the UK, Europe and many other countries as a draconian law designed to stop free speech and above all whistle blowing. On no account would Thailand be granted an extradition under this law and the country know it so never would try. The other law is also looked upon in the same way. You simple disregard this law if you live outside those borders, but also never visit the country if you have crossed into the CCA.

[JLCrab]

2 hours ago, coconuthead said:

it's common knowledge on the island what happened that night.

 

 

And with this abundance of common knowledge, nobody did anything about it out of their own vested interests. If all you have is gossip, can't do much anyway.

[Nemises]

And with this abundance of common knowledge, nobody did anything about it out of their own vested interests. If all you have is gossip, can't do much anyway.

Could you please watch this vid before you post anything more about "gossip"?

[JLCrab]

I watched it when it came out last year. Mostly unsubstantiated gossip.

[JohnThailandJohn]

While I don't believe in the death penalty if I did, these two would likely be two I felt deserved the death penalty.  They behaved like savage animals and doubt even being as young as they are that they could be trusted to be let free.

[JohnThailandJohn]

8 hours ago, Krenjai said:

Correct, and they will never be released either even if the real killers would come forward.

 

 

They will not do more than 20 years if they play their cards right and may even get out sometime after 10 years .... again assuming they play their cards right and stop allowing their lawyers to use them instead of telling them to start showing some remorse.

[Bluespunk]

14 minutes ago, JohnThailandJohn said:

 

They will not do more than 20 years if they play their cards right and may even get out sometime after 10 years .... again assuming they play their cards right and stop allowing their lawyers to use them instead of telling them to start showing some remorse.

And how exactly are the lawyers of 2 men who claim innocence "using" them, as they try to prove that the utter travesty of a trial these 2 received convicted the wrong men?

[fdch]

strange, i always get this feeling in my gut

whenever crimes happen that it is always myanmar people doing it

same when i drive with the misses

someone behaves badly on the road

it is always myanmar never thai

i do know whenever i see people working hard or having a dirty job

it is myanmar people never thai

i guess that must be the same rule

 

[alfalfa19]

I pity these guys.  Talk about a raw deal, they took the grand prize. 

[greenchair]

7 hours ago, TheLobster said:

In the 'more accurate court documents' they took the police statements as gospel without 'credible evidence' and ignored 'credible evidence' such as the UK Autopsy report. You are misleading people and have done so for a long time.

 

There was not a bit of creditable evidence presented, the circumstantial evidence doesn't warrant the verdict, the appeal was to the same court/district. There is more evidence that they were not guilty than they are guilty. In Thailand no one likes to lose face by admitting they were wrong so now we have the snowball effect. Hopefully this latest appeal will be reviewed by someone with some balls.

Your first paragraph is based on personal opinion, that clearly is not supported by court documents,all the circumstantial evidence presented by the police was confirmed by the  testimony of the b2 themselves.

I didn't see anything in the UK autopsy that would have exonerated them. Please share the part that you think was ignored. 

The second paragraph is gossip and personal opinion, which you are entitled to. 

Section 222 says in the case where there are only questions of law , the supreme court will be bound by the facts of the appeal court and the evidence on file. 

Their appeal is based on the legality of the police interview of suspects, the chain of custody of the dna.

So the court may well rule, that those 2 points were not conducted appropriately .  But it would still be bound by all of the facts already presented. It might be possible to overturn the death sentence, because they were young people duped into believing they could get cleared based on a technicality. Every cloud has a silver lining. All these appeals will add many years to their sentence, as they would have been out in 10 years had they pled guilty. So big thanks to the defense team.

[jing jing]

13 hours ago, JLCrab said:

It is now almost 3 years since the murders and there has not been one person publicly or anonymously to come forward to say that they saw the would-be perp on the island the night of or days before the murders or that anyone saw anybody harassing the late Ms. Witheridge.

And exactly what conclusion are you able to draw from this most significant observation?  If it's true that certain people who may know the truth have been threatened to shut up or else get themselves and their families killed, would you really expect anyone to take that risk on behalf of 2 Burmese migrant workers?

[greenchair]

26 minutes ago, JohnThailandJohn said:

 

They will not do more than 20 years if they play their cards right and may even get out sometime after 10 years .... again assuming they play their cards right and stop allowing their lawyers to use them instead of telling them to start showing some remorse.

Well we can all be thankful to the wonderful defense team, because without their appeals and nonsense, these 2 would already be halfway through their sentence. With luck the supreme Court will ad another couple of years, then the clock ticks five years before a pardon of death sentence to life. Then it's another couple of years before they can get reductions on the life sentence, I think. 

So all in all we can expect around 30 years. David and Hannah will get at least some justice. 

[JLCrab]

23 minutes ago, jing jing said:

And exactly what conclusion are you able to draw from this most significant observation?  If it's true that certain people who may know the truth have been threatened to shut up or else get themselves and their families killed, would you really expect anyone to take that risk on behalf of 2 Burmese migrant workers?

If they are sentient human beings, yes. But then again you would have to assume that there are such people.

 

If the powers-that-be knew who to threaten as someone who might have corroborable information of substance, why would they take the chance that one day they might have an epiphany and start to sing like a canary? 

 

Better get rid of him now before he does.

[jing jing]

1 minute ago, JLCrab said:

If they are sentient human beings, yes. But then again you would have to assume that there are such people.

It strains credulity, having any knowledge of Thai ways, to imagine any local stepping forward to accuse an "untouchable" member of the Thai elite - presumably a cold blooded murderer - out of some altruistic desire to see justice done.  Any sentient Thai person who values his life and that of his family should know better than that.  

 

This isn't like a Hollywood movie where a good person steps forward and the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end.  

 

There have been far, far too many cases in this country where the guilty parties have walked free and everyone knew it.  Why does this particular case come as such a surprise to you?

 

 

 

 

[greenchair]

1 hour ago, JohnThailandJohn said:

 

They will not do more than 20 years if they play their cards right and may even get out sometime after 10 years .... again assuming they play their cards right and stop allowing their lawyers to use them instead of telling them to start showing some remorse.

Well the supreme Court appeal will take at least a couple of years. After that they will have to submit a request for a pardon.which I think they only have 1 chance to apply either request for full pardon or request for reduction of sentence to life . I wonder if the lawyers would want to continue this farce and ask for a complete pardon of sentence, wasting their 1 last chance for a commute to life.  

If the former , they better hope their sorry butts to win the complete pardon otherwise, they will be executed in 60 days. 

[JohnThailandJohn]

5 minutes ago, greenchair said:

Well the supreme Court appeal will take at least a couple of years. After that they will have to submit a request for a pardon.which I think they only have 1 chance to apply either request for full pardon or request for reduction of sentence to life . I wonder if the lawyers would want to continue this farce and ask for a complete pardon of sentence, wasting their 1 last chance for a commute to life.  

If the former , they better hope their sorry butts to win the complete pardon otherwise, they will be executed in 60 days. 

Don't assume the appeal will be accepted. Not sure how far they are going to get with "we don't like the evidence against our clients" and " we don't trust the police" defense. Didn't work at the trial and didn't work for the previous appeal attempt. My understanding is this is the last chance to get appeal approved.

[JLCrab]

This was not the cold-blooded murder involving some intra-party Thai-on-Thai rivalry. This was the cold-blooded murder of 2 young UK citizens.

And the reason that no one has come forward with any damaging information as to the true killers may not be because of threats to kill them and their families or destroy their livelihoods, but that nobody HAS such damaging information. Either way, the status as of today is the same.