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Koh Tao murders: Thai court upholds death penalty for two men convicted of killing British backpackers

  • Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin have denied killing David Miller and raping and killing Hannah Witheridge
  • Lawyers for the two convicted men claimed the evidence in the case was mishandled and they made confessions under duress

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Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun. Photo: EPA
Two Myanmar workers on Thursday lost their final appeal against the death penalty for the 2014 murder of a pair of British tourists in Thailand.

Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and of killing David Miller, 24, after their battered bodies were found on a beach on the southern resort island of Koh Tao in September 2014.

Prosecutors insisted the evidence against the men from Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine state was clear, and announcing the verdict of a final appeal on Thursday, Thailand’s top court agreed.

“The Supreme Court upholds the verdict from the first court and the appeal court,” a judge told the stonefaced defendants, who were wearing khaki prison garb.

Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found murdered on Koh Tao in September 2014. Photo: EPA
Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found murdered on Koh Tao in September 2014. Photo: EPA

Their last hope now is for a royal pardon or commutation.

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