JAN 2, 2019 — Dear Friends,
I hope the New Year has started well for you.
I wrote to you all on New Year’s Eve to inform you of a music video that Ian Yarwood published on YouTube on Christmas Eve 2018. The video was a cover of the classic “House of the Rising Sun” (made famous by “The Animals” and others) but with new lyrics and the title “Death Island of the Setting Sun.”
Given that January has proved to be a dangerous month for some tourists, Ian wishes to send each of you a message about the video and how your involvement might just make a difference to the lives of Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin and to tourists contemplating visiting Koh Tao.
Christopher Harkins
…..
Dear Friends,
I wish to extend my own thanks to all of you who supported the petition that Chris organised over four years ago now.
You each had your own reason(s) for adding your names to that petition. Some of you might have been primarily motivated out of concern for the murder victims, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller (and of course their friends and families). Some of you might have been motivated by an overwhelming suspicion or belief that the two Burmese migrant workers were being framed and you wished to do something to protect them. Some of you might have been motivated by a desire to bring the true killers to justice and to send a message that you harboured strong doubts about the truth of many statements coming from various spokesmen of the Royal Thai Police. Some might have wished to do something to warn other unwary tourists. Many of you would have been motivated by more than one of the reasons outlined above.
In this brief update, I will try to write something that will be of interest to all of you.
I also wish to promote the music video again and ask and encourage you to take the 5 minutes to view it and share it on Facebook and Twitter etc if you have not already done so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWLaPiiNx8o
In part, the video is a dedication to foreigners who perished on Koh Tao in recent years. The names of 15 of them are listed at the end of the video, including four who died in the month of January, Nick Pearson (UK 1/1/2014), Dimitri Povse (France 1/1/2015), Christina Annesley (UK 21/1/2015) and Luke Miller (UK 8/1/2016). A quick investigation via Google should reveal to anyone that each of those four deaths were either murders or at least highly suspicious.
I also dedicated the video in part to Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin who were convicted of killing Hannah and David and who are now languishing on death row in the “Bangkok Hilton” awaiting the outcome of their final appeal, which is currently before the Supreme Court of Thailand. The Supreme Court will make its decision “on the papers” filed early in 2018. It is not known when a decision is likely to be made. If the appeal is unsuccessful then the defendants’ last hope is an appeal to the King of Thailand.
Many months after Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were convicted I did find out, after considerable effort, that the Thai police laboratory that provided the so-called DNA evidence lacked the correct accreditation at the material time. The whole process is supposed to be transparent but extracting this information from the Thai Bureau of Laboratory Quality Standards was excruciatingly difficult.
As you may know, on 18 June 2018 Thailand ended a de facto 9 year moratorium on carrying out the death sentence. One week later Zaw Lin wrote a harrowing letter to one of his supporters informing her of the fear that went through the prison following that execution. I read the letter but will not publish a copy as it was not addressed to me. Previously, with Zaw Lin’s consent and encouragement, I have published some of his letters to me on my Twitter account @IanYarwood_Law . I will publish 3 of them in a chain later today for those of you who wish to read them.
In November 2018, there was a small amount of good news. A notorious English troll, Paul Hind was convicted of targeting four families online (including Hannah’s) with “indecent or grossly offensive” material. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The trolls, whether in Thailand or in the West act to make tragic situations even worse. Unfortunately, there are even trolls who have infiltrated this petition. One recently posted a comment under the previous update to the effect that she read the “court transcript” and added that the two Burmese men could not keep their story straight. In fact, it is common knowledge that Thai courts do not tape record their proceedings and therefore they do not produce a court transcript. Therefore, please be sceptical of any adverse comments you might read below.
Unfortunately, as outlined in the dedication page of the video, tourists and other foreigners are continuing to die on Koh Tao in suspicious circumstances. A Google search of each of the names should lead one to various articles about the respective deaths. Fortunately though, many international news organisations have grown increasingly sceptical that the deaths are the “accidents” or “suicides” that the police claim they are.
Your participation in spreading the video and taking a stand helps convince journalists and the world that although Koh Tao can be paradise it can also be a Hell that still presents dangers to tourists and the two young men on death row.
I can advise that I have had feedback from several family members and friends of victims who take comfort in the fact that people are sharing the video and take comfort that they are believed.
Should any of you wish to write to the two young men to remind them that they are not forgotten, their current addresses and details are as follows:
Wai Phyo (590018) & Zaw Lin (590082)
Building 2
Bangkwang Central Prison
117 Nonthaburi Road
NONTHABURI 11000
THAILAND
For your interest here is a short article about the video:
Thank you and best wishes.
Ian Yarwood
Solicitor
Perth – Western Australia