Myanmar's army chief questions Thailand murder verdict

YANGON — The head of Myanmar's military has joined growing criticism against the death sentences handed down to two men from Myanmar for a double murder on a Thai resort island, calling on Thailand's military government to review the case.

Gen. Min Aung Hlaing's comments, carried by state media on yesterday, came after the men were convicted of murdering two British tourists last year on Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand known as a top diving destination. Thursday's verdict has sparked daily protests in Myanmar.

The army chief urged Thailand to "review the evidence" that led to the convictions of the two migrants, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, who say Thai police tortured them into confessing.

The men were found guilty of killing David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, whose battered bodies were found on a Koh Tao beach on Sept. 14, 2014. Autopsies showed the pair, who met on the island while staying at the same hotel, had suffered severe head wounds and that Witheridge had been raped.

The general urged Thailand to "avoid a situation in which the innocent ... were wrongly punished," according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which carried the statement on its front page yesterday.

The brutality of the murders tarnished the image of Thailand's tourism industry and raised questions about police competence and the Thai judicial system after the defense accused police of mishandling key evidence and using the two men as scapegoats. Police deny any wrongdoing.

Since the verdict, protests have been held in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon — outside the Thai Embassy and at the famed Shwedagon Pagoda — and at the Myanmar-Thai border. yesterday's English-language Bangkok Post reported that Myanmar's ambassador to Thailand also expressed objections to the verdict.

"Even though we do not wish to meddle with the justice system of Thailand, we would like to request the prime minister review and reconsider the case," the Bangkok Post quoted the ambassador, Win Maung, as saying in a statement.

Human Rights Watch called the verdict "profoundly disturbing," citing the defendants' accusations of police torture that were never investigated and questionable DNA evidence linking them to the crime.

The general's statement was part of a New Year's message to his Thai counterparts, including Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, also a general and Thailand's defense minister.