Connect with us

Regional News

British Judge Denies Koh Tao Murder Defendants UK Police Report

Avatar of CTN News

Published

on

The Royal Courts of Justice

The Royal Courts of Justice in London

.

.

LONDON – Briton’s High Court Judge Nicholas Green ruled on Tuesday that Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin the two Myanmar workers on trial for the murder of two British tourists on Koh Tao should not be given access to a confidential British police report about the case.

In a ruling handed down in London on Tuesday, High Court Judge Nicholas Green said the misgivings were such Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his British counterpart, David Cameron, discussed the matter.

The two leaders agreed that Britain’s Metropolitan Police would send a team to Thailand to conduct an independent inquiry. However, as it is British policy not to assist foreign police forces in death penalty cases, the scope of the mission was to observe and record the Thai police investigation.

Thai police cooperated fully under the pre-agreed condition that the British team’s final report would be shared only with the Witheridge and Miller families.

But the two murder suspects, who have been on trial since early July, applied to the court to hand over the report, arguing that it might be of use to their defence case.

The Metropolitan Police opposed their application, arguing that disclosure would impede the force’s ability to enter into cooperation agreements with foreign authorities in future.

Having seen the full report, the judge ruled that the interests of the police outweighed those of the suspects.

“In short I have concluded that there is nothing in the police report which is exculpatory, i.e. would be of material assistance to the claimants in the trial,” he said in a summary of his ruling.

Postmortem examinations of the two British backpackers showed both suffered severe head wounds and Witheridge was raped.

The two suspects initially confessed in police interviews and were taken to the crime scene where they re-enacted the murders in front of the world’s media. They later retracted the confessions, alleging they had been tortured by Thai police.

Continue Reading

CTN News App

CTN News App

Recent News

BUY FC 24 COINS

compras monedas fc 24

Volunteering at Soi Dog

Find a Job

Jooble jobs

Free ibomma Movies