AASYC’s Statement on the Unlawful Verdict of the Koh Tao Murder Case

By All Arakan Student's and Youths' Congress • December 25, 2015

1. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC) find it shocking to witness the unlawful verdict of Koh Tao Murder Case, for which both UK, home to the bereaved family, and Myanmar, motherland of the accused, also express little sympathy and slight willingness to ascertain justice for the accused.

2. Clear is the fact that accusations and verdict by Thai judiciary on Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were made, based on seemingly hypothetical evidence so as to save the country’s national pride and image as a tourist-friendly haven in the world, without regard to the international norms of jurisdiction. The aforesaid negligence entails (1) collection of evidence without forensic doctors against Thai own law (2) trial of the accused without concrete evidence and eye witness,(3) controversial method of DNA testing,(4) failure to prevent any access and alteration to the crime site and (5) denial of the evidence to the defenders and the accused.

3. UK’s role in justice seeking in the case of Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun is questionable as well in light of its denial to the defenders and the accused of the evidence, which the victims’ families deem “overwhelming and convincing”. Furthermore, it nearly breached its own law while rendering assistance and support to a case for which death penalty is inevitable.

4. Although Myanmar Government has been providing some support for legal proceedings since the earlier stages of the case, it at the end raises no official voice for and shows no strong commitment to ensuring humanitarian and justified treatment by a foreign nation to Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, which is also disheartening to its citizens as a whole and Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand in particular.

5. On behalf of Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun who fell victim to the miscarriage of Thai judiciary, UK’s partiality in seeking justice and Myanmar’s lack of motivation to protect its citizens in the face of gross human right violation, AASYC would like to urge the national leaders and the governments concerned plus the international community of law-abiding and freedom loving people to demand in solidarity a fair and public trial only for the sake of human dignity.

Download the statement in English here.

သေဘာထားေၾကညာခ်က္ ျမန္မာဘာသာကိုဤေနရာတြင္ ေဒါင္းလုပ္ရယူႏိုင္ပါသည္။

Tags: All Arakan Students' and Youths' Congress, ASEAN, Crimes against humanity, Human Rights, Koh Tao Murder Case, Migrant Workers

This post is in: Press Release

AASYC’s Statement on the Unlawful Verdict of the Koh Tao Murder Case

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