Koh Tao: Family agrees with guilty verdict, but not death penalty

The family of David Miller, a British man murdered on Koh Tao in Surat Thani in 2014, has called on Thai officials to show leniency and not carry out the death sentence.

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Victim's kin seek leniency for 2 killers

Anucha Charoenpo
Prangthong Jitcharoenkul

The family of David Miller, a British man murdered on Koh Tao in Surat Thani in 2014, has called on Thai officials to show leniency and not carry out the death sentence.

The Miller family said they remain confident the Appeal Court has "made the correct decision" by upholding a guilty verdict in the trial into his murder but they want Thai officials to be lenient in relation to the death sentence.

Two Myanmar men, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, also known as Wai Phyo, both 22, were sentenced to death on Dec 24, 2015 for the murder of Miller and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, also from Britain, on the resort island on Sept 15, 2014. The sentence sparked a public outcry from the pair's supporters and many members of the public, who believed the Myanmar convicts were scapegoats.

Miller had been hit over the head with a garden hoe before being left to drown in the sea while Witheridge had been raped before she was killed.

On Wednesday, the Appeal Court upheld the guilty verdict handed down to the pair. Later yesterday, the Miller family backed the verdict. The statement was found on the Facebook page of Toffee Figgins, who has closely monitored the case.

The Miller family said they did not want innocent men sentenced nor guilty parties acquitted on a technicality. But in the end, they felt that justice has been served because the evidence against the two convicts was overwhelming. They also said Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo will now have time in jail to reflect on their horrific crimes.

"We have lost our son David forever and the Witheridge family will have been similarly devastated by this crime. There is not a day that goes by in our home without pain, feelings of loss and utter sadness," they said.

"We are proud of our son and what he achieved in his short life. We miss him terribly and miss his hugs, beaming smiles and infectious enthusiasm. His life was cruelly destroyed," they said.

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