A LEGAL team is preparing an appeal against the guilty verdict and death penalty for two Myanmar defendants, who are at the centre of the high-profile double murder case on Thailand’s Koh Tao island.

“We will lodge an appeal on February 24,” the defendants’ lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchart disclosed recently. “We are confident our appeal will carry enough weight”.

Koh Samui Court has found Nakhon’s clients, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, guilty of killing two British tourists – Hannah Witheridge and David Miller. They were also convicted of raping the female victim. Along with the guilty verdict, the court handed down the death penalty to the two defendants.

The brutal crimes, which took place in 2014, have made headlines both locally and internationally. The case has also received serious attention from authorities in Thailand, Myanmar and Britain.

After the verdict was read out in December, many Myanmar people staged protests in their homeland as they believed the defendants’ claim that they were forced into confessing.

Nakhon, who is now preparing the appeal for the Myanmar defendants, said police initially arrested Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun on charges of illegal entry.

“The arrest might have led them into initially making a confession out of ignorance, problems related to an interpreter [used by police] and threats they faced,” the lawyer said.

He also pointed out that the |two defendants did not have a lawyer by their side when they confessed.

“The maximum punishment of their case is death. So we see the lack of a lawyer to support them as an apparent violation of their rights,” Nakhon said.

He said the appeal would also focus on unclear evidence and a lack of witnesses who directly saw the crimes taking place.

Nakhon said investigators had patched things together and some items of evidence used in the case were questionable.

According to him, the cell phones of the victims that police say were in the defendants’ possession did not carry either of the two men’s fingerprints.

He added that the defendants’ fingerprints were not found on the hoe either, which was identified as a killing weapon.

Nakhon, moreover, questioned DNA testing standards and the fact that police did not use the clothes of the victims as evidence.

“Pictures of autopsies were not provided fully either,” he said.

Pol General Jarumporn Suramanee, who worked as the National Police Office’s adviser at the time the crime took place, has insisted up until now that police conducted the investigation systematically.

“We have checked recordings from as many as 360 security cameras,” he said.

He pointed out that from the recordings, police identified the defendants.

“In addition, DNA traces found on and in Witheridge’s body nailed down the defendants,” Jarumporn said.

A statement from Hannah’s mother Susan revealed the family’s anxiety over the trip – and how she only made the decision to go at the last minute, reported The Daily Telegraph.

Susan read out the statement at Norwich Coroner’s Court at the inquest into Hannah’s death. The inquest has now ruled that Hannah was “unlawfully killed” in Koh Tao.

Hannah, 23, was raped and murdered along with another Briton, David Miller, on the resort island in September 2014. A Thai court sentenced two Myanmar migrants, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, to death for killing the two Britons late last year.

Susan said her daughter originally planned to travel to Europe or Australia, before making a late decision to go to Thailand, the Telegraph said.

“The family had always been against Hannah going on the trip and tried to persuade her out of it. None of the family was happy with her going there, but she had made her mind up,” she said.

The mother said that her daughter had tried to allay her fears by talking to them by Skype or sending messages every day. She said that Hannah, from Hemsby, Norfolk, had attended a cooking course in Bangkok and had gone trekking while travelling around Thailand.

“But I relaxed when she got to the small island of Koh Tao because I knew she was just swimming and sunbathing,” she said.

The two Myanmar migrant defendants claimed during their trial that they were tortured and forced to confess. Their lawyers will submit an appeal this month disputing DNA evidence used against the defendants.

At the heart of the scheme is the goal to create better learning environments at local nurseries.

The project, called “Reducing Inequality through Early Childhood Education”, took off yesterday with 24 tambon administrative organisations from the northeastern provinces of Maha Sarakham and Kalasin inking a memorandum of understanding with the Quality Learning Foundation and the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Research Institute for Policy Evaluation and Design.

The initiative frames the learning environment in “Plan”, “Do” and “Review” stages, enabling children to choose what they want to learn, allowing them to proceed with their ideas and finally reviewing what they have done or learnt.

Son Bualad, who heads the Tambon Tha Song Khon Administrative Organisation, said he hoped the initiative would ultimately be offered to all 130 nursery pupils in his area.

“It will be great to cooperate with the universities that have researchers. Research will be useful for improvement of the education system in local nursery schools,” he added.

Project director Weerachart Kilenthong said early childhood or primary school education is the key factor to improve human capital for the country’s development.

There are about 50 nursery schools in Maha Sarakham and Kalasin joining the pilot programme covering 2,000 children aged between two and four. He added that the project found 42.17 per cent of children at these nurseries did not live with their parents, which was above the national average of 30 per cent.

“This situation called the ‘skipped generation family’ will affect children’s life quality, as they lack quality time with their parents,” Son said.

The project survey shows that children staying with their parents tend to have 2.57 hours of play-for-learning time compared to 1.89 hours for children who do not live with parents.

The project is expected to increase quality time for childre, the study said.

The ongoing investigation suggests that the two Thais detained in connection with the case might have just played a role in taking the victim’s assets, Pol General Panya Mamen said yesterday in his capacity as chief investigator.

The suspect Arthur Segarra, 37, is accused of killing and dismembering David Bernat, a businessman who is from the same region of Catalonia in Spain as Segarra, in January before dumping the victim’s body parts into the Chao Phraya River at several locations in Nonthaburi and Phrathum Thani. Sergarra, who has denied the allegations, was arrested in Cambodia late last week and returned to Thailand on Monday. A search of his condominium on Rama 9 road found blood in the sewer and on the motorbike which he allegedly used to transport Bernat’s body, according to a police officer on the investigating team.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) footage dated January 20 showed that Segarra and Bernat both riding on the bike into Segarra’s condominium but footage from the same camera did not show Bernat leaving. Police said it was possible that Bernat was killed the same day.

Bernat’s corpse might have been put in a freezer before being chopped up and dumped into the river, police said, noting that CCTV footage showed Segarra riding a motorbike encumbered with a big black plastic bag out of the condominium on January 26.

Police are examining other evidence collected from the condominium and other locations.

An interrogation of Segarra’s Thai girlfriend, Pridsana Saenubon, revealed that she withdrew Bt40,000 from an ATM account that might be related to the case.

On January 31, Segarra told Pridsana to find a car to move his belongings from his condominium to Rakhamhaeng Road, she told police, adding that they had destroyed documents but she had no idea about their contents. Segarra is now being detained at Boworn Mongkol police station and had refused to say anything during the interrogation.

Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahat-avorn, acting chief of Metropolitan Police, said the suspect has the right to see embassy officials and lawyers, adding that police would arrange a meeting in return for his cooperation in the investigation.

 

Nakarin said the officials would proceed with action according to the National Council for Peace and Order’s 64th order to suppress forestry and environment law violators.

Two resorts had been accused of having Sor Kor Nung land claim certificates with content that didn’t match original copies held by the Khong Chiam District Office while two resorts were unable to state their exact territory. As the resorts claimed to buy land from villagers, the park said they allowed villagers, who lived on the lands before the park was established, to use the lands for farming but not for other commercial activities or resale.

The 44-year-old plaintiff’s original civil lawsuit against the hospital, the doctor and the device manufacturer demanded compensation of Bt82.6 million plus 7.5 per cent interest until full payment was made for the 15cm-wide and 30cm-long third-degree burn wound that she sustained.

The lower court had ruled in July 2013 for the hospital and the doctor to pay her Bt10.273 million plus 7.5 per cent interest as well as the lawyer fees worth Bt30,000. The court dismissed the charge against the device’s manufacturer. The two defendants have appealed the case.

All suspects were rounded up in a raid last week, as police acted in response to a complaint filed with an anti-corruption centre about alleged gambling.

The arrested suspects were released on Bt5,000 bail each.

Authorities have decided not to charge these suspects with gambling after several experts have come forward to explain that bridge is not a form of gambling, but an internationally-recognised game.

“But police plan to charge them for playing the games at a place that is not properly registered as a club,” Mueang Pattaya Police Station’s superintendent Pol Colonel Suktas Phumpanmuang said.

Yesterday, the campaign released a video saying that a “well matching donor has been found”.

“It’s kind of incredible and amazing to think that this person is one in 25 million,” Casalotti said in the video.

Casalotti said that the campaign would continue as mixed-race donors are still underrepresented in databases across the world.

The court mandated that Bt10,000 be paid to damaged parties within 30 days in compensation for their houses and rice-storage structures being burnt down in Petchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan district.

Villagers from Ban Pongluek-Bang Kloi, the Lawyers Council of Thailand and the National Human Rights Commission filed a lawsuit in 2011 against the DNP and its former chief Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn alleging that villagers’ homes had been burnt down to force them out of the area.

A source said police had filed a petition with the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PSACC) to probe Chaiwat and others for abuse of authority in regards to the alleged arson.

PSACC secretary general Prayong Preeyajit said he would appoint an investigative team to probe the allegations by next month.

Police said they suspected Chaiwat and others had violated Article 157 of the Criminal Code by committing arson.

Thanu Ekchot, the villagers’ lawyer, said he would consult with his legal team over whether to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, Chaiwat said the court verdict showed that park officials had acted in accordance with the law.

He also dismissed the validity of evidence presented by the Lawyers Council and the Rights Commission, who had presented the court with pictures of the area in question. He added that the groups had claimed to travel to the area in a three-day round trip, when the round trip would actually take eight days. Chaiwat said he would seek justice over the matter.

The Karen villagers claim that they have inhabited the |area for years, and not encroached on it recently as the DNP alleges.

Thanu said his team demanded Bt1 million in compensation for violations of the villagers’ human rights and destruction of their assets and homes.