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The trial of Burmese migrant workers accused of killing British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao island last September is to start this week. The high-profile case has thrown the spotlight on Thailand’s legal failings and distressed the grieving families.

The criminal trial of Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo will begin on Wednesday at a court on the nearby and larger island of Koh Samui and is expected to end on 25 September. A verdict is expected in October.

The legal team representing the 22-year-old bar and restaurant workers is made up of pro-bono lawyers and human rights activists who accuse Thai police of improperly collecting evidence at the crime scene, intimidation and abuse of witnesses and suspects, and not sharing key forensic evidence with the defence, a move they say seriously impedes a fair trial.

Thai police have denied any wrongdoing.

The court in April ordered that DNA and other physical evidence linking the Burmese migrant workers to the murder could be independently checked, a move the suspects’ lawyers said could help ensure justice is served. But the defence was later told the court would only answer these requests on the first day of the trial.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International have become involved, noting that Burmese migrant workers, of whom there are around 2.5 million, have previously been wrongly accused of crimes by Thai police.

frank lee bent wrote:everyone knows who really did it

Witheridge’s family said in the joint statement in December that UK detectives who travelled to Thailand cooperated with Thai police.

“We would like to stress that as a family we are confident in the work that has been carried out into these atrocious crimes and want to remind both press and public that they do not have the full facts to report and make comment on at this stage,” the family said.

Miller’s family said “evidence collected by the Royal Thai police will be presented at court and we hope the suspects are granted a fair and transparent trial. We are thankful of the oversight of pressure groups such as Reprieve and Amnesty.”

“From what we have seen, the suspects have a difficult case to answer. The evidence against them appears to be powerful and convincing,” they said.

“Please remember that this is above all a story of two wonderful young people, David and Hannah, killed in the prime of their lives in a senseless and brutal way.”

Police failed to check CCTV footage from the only pier on the island where two British tourists were murdered last year, a lawyer for the two Myanmar nationals accused of the killings said Thursday.

Under cross-examination Thursday a senior investigator, Pol Col Cherdpong Chiewpreecha, told a Koh Samui court that CCTV footage from the pier had not been examined after the double murders.

The pier is close to the beach where the battered bodies of the British holidaymakers were found and is the main route to and from the resort island.

"I asked whether police checked CCTV footage. He (the witness) replied no and that police had collected the footage but investigators thought it wasn't relevant," defence lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchat told AFP after the morning session.

The defence also alleged that a small boat was seen leaving the island shortly after the killings but the officer was unable to confirm this information.

Today’s court hearing, which lasted for nearly 12 hours, saw only one witness: an investigative police officer chosen by the prosecution to present dozens of video clips culled from the footage of 300 CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity of the crime. The officer, Pol.Col. Cherdpong Chiewpreecha, said that only 100 of those cameras were operational, and 22 of them showed the movements of Witheridge and Miller on their final night.

DNA samples taken from a garden hoe believed to have been used in the murder of British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in Thailand last year does not belong to the two men who are standing trial, a top Thai forensic expert has told the court.

The revelation is the latest in a string of inconsistencies in the police investigation into the brutal killings. During a three-month trial, police have been accused of improperly collecting evidence at the crime scene, intimidation and abuse of witnesses.

Thai police deny any wrongdoing. ..

phuketrichard wrote:I never thought they did it anyway.

more embarrassment for the government

Don’t let your kids backpack in Koh Tao – the clear message from the CH4 documentary

At 10pm GMT last night Ch4 presented a documentary about six suspicious deaths in just over two years on the Thai island of Koh Tao. The program created by Make Productions had already been aired on Channel News Asia last month, however the UK program was billed to be a less watered down version.

...The message from the documentary was clear, parents should do all in their power to discourage their children from visiting an island where six westerners have died in just over two years and seemingly nobody is happy with the investigations from the police.

The CH4 documentary focused on 5 Brits and one French man, they made no mention of the Swiss man who went missing snorkelling just after the murders of Hannah and David. When investigators looked for his body they found a white man floating in the waters of Koh Phangan, that turned out not to be him, the body found floating near Donsak turned out not to be him either, however the third body found near Langsuan were the remains of Hans Peter Suter a man who had just completed his PADI Divemaster course – a strong swimmer who in order to gain his qualification would have completed his rescue diver course too.

No explanation was ever given as to who the other two sets of remains belonged to. There was also no mention of the Burmese lady who was the daughter of the beach cleaner, and first on the scene. Although the authorities like to believe she left Thailand to return to her village in Myanmar, locals believe the mortal remains of a woman found on a rubbish dump in Koh Tao belonged to her...