Anger in Myanmar over death sentences

[TIEPILOT]

Anger in Myanmar over death sentences

AAP
December 25, 2015, 8:27 pm

Hundreds of protesters have gathered in Yangon to express their anger at the death sentences handed to two Myanmar citizens for the murder of two British tourists in southern Thailand.

Illegal migrant workers Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were on Thursday found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge and the murder of David Miller on the island resort of Koh Tao in September 2014.

Around 600 people gathered in front of the Royal Thai Embassy in Yangon carrying signs saying "We ask for justice," and "Shameless Thailand government."

"We are here just to demand justice for the two Myanmar nationals who were unfairly sentenced to death," poet Aung Khun Sat told DPA.

"We feel that the court decision is unfair and that there was no transparency in the court hearing." "We are here not to attack the embassy, just to protest the failed judiciary system of Thailand," said Maykhalar, another protester at the scene.

Andy Hall, head of the group which organised the legal defence, said police had used torture to extract a confession from the pair, which they later retracted, and that investigators had fumbled the DNA forensics.

The judge, and the family of David Miller, said at the court that there was strong evidence against the Myanmar duo, including DNA evidence.

The mothers of the two convicts were taken sobbing from the court after the verdict was announced.

Amid public anger over the death sentences, the Thai Embassy in Yangon said Thai nationals should be "extra vigilant and avoid identifying your nationality where possible."

While hundreds of people are on death row in Thailand, there has not been a state execution since 2009.