Thailand’s Ranong district court is expected to deliver its verdict tomorrow on the fate of four young Myanmar migrant workers charged with the 2015 murder of a 17-year-old schoolgirl.
The suspects, who are aged between 18 and 25, confessed to their involvement in the fatal stabbing of Ms Orawee Sampaotong, who was known as Apple. But they later claimed to be innocent, saying they signed the confessions after being tortured by Thai police.
If they are found guilty, all four men may face the death sentence, said U Htoo Chit, the executive director of the Foundation for Education and Development (FED), which supports Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
In an interview with Frontier, Htoo Chit drew parallels between this case and the high-profile conviction, in 2015, of two Myanmar migrant workers, for the murder of British backpackers, David Miller and Hannah Witheridge, on the Thai holiday island of Koh Tao.
Htoo Chit was the spokesperson for a committee formed by Myanmar’s embassy in Thailand to investigate the Koh Tao case. Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Win Zaw Tun, known as Wai Phyo, lost their appeal against the death sentence in March 2017.
In both instances, Htoo Chit said, the accused were scapegoats. The defense, in both cases, accused the police of using abuse and intimidation to extract confessions and of mishandling critical pieces of evidence, including DNA samples. Neither of the trials have been fair, he said.
He said Thai police had a history of convicting innocent Myanmar migrant workers in the place of Thai nationals. The Koh Tai murder case was among the first of these cases to gain international attention, he added, because the victims were British tourists.
A botched investigation?
Police found the body of Orawee Sampaotong on September 28, 2015. They did not arrest any suspects until almost one month later, a detail that the defense says is a major flaw in the case.
On October 20 police arrested the primary suspect, Ko Moe Zin Aung, who was then aged 15, and his elder brother, in connection with the murder, according to Htoo Chit.
The brothers, who come from Ywae Su village, in Mandalay region’s Patheingyi township, were arrested in Khuraburi, which is over 100 kilometres from Ranong province.
Having released the elder boy, on October 23, police arrested Ko Sein Ka Tone (then 20) and Ko Kyaw Soe Win (then 15). They arrested Ko Wai Lin (then 25), the following day.
In January 2016, the parents of the four accused men asked for legal assistance from the Thai Department of Special Investigation, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, the Lawyers Council of Thailand and the Myanmar embassy. The parents said the suspects were tortured while being held.
Kyaw Soe Win later told the FED that police had strangled and punched the suspects. Speaking on behalf of all four men, he said they were also blindfolded, threatened with a gun, suffocated with a plastic bag and kicked in the genitals.
He has said the police dictated confessions to the suspects, including a timeline of events on the day of the murder. They had no choice but to accept, he said, and they signed because they were afraid.
“The way the Thai police handled Moe Zin Aung is suspicious,” said his mother. SFM EP
