Thailand | Families struggle to afford visits to pair serving life sentences for allegedly killing two British nationals on Koh Tao island

It has been more than three years since family members visited Ko Zaw Lin Tun and Ko Win Zaw Tun (pictured) from Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township, who have been serving life sentences in a Thai prison for allegedly killing two British nationals in 2014.

Family members say they have faced financial constraints preventing them from visiting the duo because their mothers are ill.

“The last time we visited him was in 2019, before the Covid-19 outbreak,” said Ko Ye Zaw Tun, the brother of Ko Win Zaw Tun. “My mother has cataracts now, so it has become difficult for us to visit my brother. We don’t even have money to treat her cataracts. We will be able to visit him only when there are donors and those who will arrange for us to visit him.”

Ko Win Zaw Tun’s mother is currently receiving treatment for her eyes in Kyaukphyu town. Ko Zaw Lin Tun’s mother is also ailing, with symptoms including headache and lumps on her neck.

“My mother can barely speak now. And she misses her son. Perhaps she is sick because she misses him too much,” said Ko Zaw Win, the brother of Ko Zaw Lin Tun.

“Between financial constraints and mental pains, my mother is exhausted. I would like to call for the release of my brother and Win Zaw Tun, as I cannot stand the sight of my grief-stricken mother,” he added.

Daw Phyu Shwe Nu, the mother of Ko Zaw Lin Tun, said: “We can’t afford to visit him. I am sick and I wish that my son will be released soon.”

Ko Win Zaw Tun and Ko Zaw Lin Tun, who were then working in Thailand, were convicted in 2015 of murdering two British tourists on the Thai island of Koh Tao the year prior.

The two Myanmar nationals have denied any involvement in the murders, but multiple appeals to higher courts were rejected.

Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by a royal pardon from the Thai king in 2020.

Agence France-Presse Fact Check, Sept. 2, 2022:

Multiple Burmese-language posts claim that Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn has pardoned two Burmese migrant workers who were convicted in 2015 of murdering two British tourists on a southern Thai island. The posts -- shared thousands of times -- circulated following news reports that the king would give a royal pardon to tens of thousands of the kingdom's inmates. However, the claim is false. Thai prison authorities told AFP the Burmese pair -- Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun -- remain in prison as of August 31, 2022. A spokesperson for the pair's legal team said the claim was "a totally untrue rumour".

"His Royal Majesty of Thailand has pardoned Win Zaw Tun and Zaw Lin who were accused and sentenced to prison for the 2014 Koh Tao murder case," reads this Burmese-language Facebook post on August 28, 2022.

The post -- which included a photo of Win Zaw Tun and Zaw Lin -- has been shared more than 960 times.

"The king decided to pardon the two after hearing about the pleas from the Burmese citizens on the Thai Royal Family official page as a humanitarian act and a kind gesture to a neighbouring country," the post continues.

"They will be given $2 million as compensation by the Thai government, and will be escorted to Yangon International Airport by the Royal Thai police force."

The post circulated online after the Thai media reported on August 13 that more than 100,000 inmates serving jail terms would be released early or have their sentences reduced under a royal pardon to mark the Thai king's 70th birthday and the queen mother's 90th birthday.

Win Zaw Tun, also known as Wai Phyo, was sentenced to death along with Zaw Lin in 2019 for the murders of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge in the southern Thai diving resort of Koh Tao in 2014.

The Burmese pair received a surge of sympathy in their homeland after a controversial trial that sparked protests in Myanmar, AFP reported.

Their sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2020, following a mass royal pardon.

Similar posts have been shared more than 1,300 times after they were shared on Facebook.

However, the claim is false.

Source: bnionline.net, Staff, August 30, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Tennessee | Questions Raised About the Doctor Who Was Overseeing Tony Caruthers’ Execution

Mark Fowler, according to a deposition, had not placed a central line in a patient for more than a decade when he attempted to put one in Carruthers Around 11 a.m. Thursday morning in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, a medical doctor stepped in and attempted to place a central IV line in Tony Carruthers’ chest. By that point, the prison staff had spent some 30 minutes trying unsuccessfully to insert a backup IV line that would allow them to proceed with the lethal injection. According to Carruthers’ attorney Maria DeLiberato, who was in the room, after asking a staff member to attempt inserting a line through Carruthers’ jugular vein, the doctor moved on to the central line, which is identified as the last resort in Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol .

EU GSP+ Reform: Will Brussels Finally Enforce Its Own Conditions on Pakistan?

The EU has tightened the rules governing GSP+ trade preferences, but Pakistan’s record raises a harder question: whether Brussels is prepared to suspend market access when a major beneficiary fails to demonstrate sustained compliance with human rights, labour and governance obligations. The European Union has formally adopted revised rules for its Generalised Scheme of Preferences, strengthening the conditions attached to preferential market access for developing countries. The new framework will apply from 1 January 2027 and is intended to tighten monitoring, widen the list of international conventions, and make suspension of benefits easier in cases of serious violations.

Florida executes Richard Knight

Man convicted of killing a woman and her 4-year-old daughter is executed in Florida A Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing his cousin’s girlfriend and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter was put to death Thursday evening, becoming the 7th person executed by the state this year. Richard Knight, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Knight was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the June 2002 killings of Odessia Stephens and her daughter, Hanessia Mullings. The curtain of the death chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6:00 p.m. execution time. Knight was already strapped down with his arms extended and an IV line in place.

Iran executes Esma Zarei in Ardabil Prison after she gave birth in custody

Hengaw – Saturday, May 23, 2026. Iranian authorities have executed Esma Zarei, a 28-year-old Turkish woman from Parsabad in Ardabil Province, who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of her husband. She is the sixth woman executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Zarei was executed at dawn on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in Ardabil Central Prison. She had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) after being convicted of her husband’s murder.

Tennessee fails to execute Tony Carruthers after IV difficulties. State won't try again for a year

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials on Thursday called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, after his executioners tried and failed for over an hour to establish an intravenous line. Gov. Bill Lee announced soon afterward that the state would not try again for at least a year. In a written statement, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said medical personnel had quickly established a primary IV line but were unable to find a suitable vein for a backup line as required by the state’s execution protocol. Efforts to insert a central line also failed, and officials called off the execution.

Arizona executes Leroy McGill

Arizona executes inmate who set couple on fire in 'horrific attack' Arizona has executed Leroy McGill for setting 21-year-old Charles Perez and his 24-year-old girlfriend on fire. Perez died the next day and Perez survived with severe burn injuries. Arizona has executed a death row inmate for setting 2 people on fire more than 20 years ago, killing 1 of them and changing the other's life forever. The state executed Leroy McGill, 63, by lethal injection on Wednesday, May 20, for the 2002 murder of 21-year-old Charles Perez. McGill set Perez and his girlfriend on fire after they accused him of theft, court records say. Perez died of his injuries the next day while his girlfriend survived with severe burns.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Florida: The Daily Routine of Death Row Inmates

The breakfast carts rattle through the concrete prison at about 5:30 am and as they approach Death Row the first sounds of morning repeat the last sounds of night - remote controlled locks clanging open and clunking closed, electric gates whirring, heavy metal doors crashing shut, voices wailing, klaxons blaring. A maximum security prison has no soft or delicate sounds. At the end of each corridor of death row cells a guard opens a heavy door of steel bars and a prison trusty pushes a breakfast cart inside. The door closes behind him and when it locks a second door opens and admits the trusty to the wing. He steers his cart along the wing stopping at each cell to pass a tray of powdered eggs and lukewarm grits through a small slot on the bars. Food is prepared by prison staff and transported in insulated carts to the cells. The food carts are full of cockroaches, the food is often undercooked or just rotten and is served on Styrofoam plates with a plastic "spork" - fork/spoon...

Iraq: German schoolgirl, 17, turned jihadi bride escapes death penalty and is jailed for six years

GERMAN Jihadi bride Linda Wenzel has been jailed for six years in Baghdad for her role as an Islamic enforcer with terror group ISIS. Wenzel, 17, who last year sobbed on TV “I have ruined my life,” could have faced the death penalty. German media reported that a German embassy representative in Iraq was in court yesterday to witness her sentencing. She received five years for joining IS and one year for entering Iraq illegally. Wenzel was found in the rubble of IS stronghold Mosul back in the summer of 2017. Charges were laid against her and three other German women captured with her. Schoolgirl Wenzel fled to Turkey then into Syria last year from her hometown of Pulsnitz in eastern Germany after being groomed online by a Chechen IS fighter who she married. He was killed in the savage fighting for Mosul while she was employed by the terror group enforcing the strict Islamic dress code on women in the city. She burst into tears after her capture and said s...

Florida | Jury recommends death for Otto Lenke, judge to make final call

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A St. Lucie County jury recommended the death penalty for Otto Lenke on Thursday in the penalty phase of his first-degree murder trial, though the final decision rests with the judge. Lenke, 66, a former Melbourne police officer and Indian River County firefighter , was convicted earlier this month of first-degree murder and first-degree arson in the Feb. 17, 2021, killing of Richard Benson at Fast Frank’s Custom Cycle Components, Benson’s motorcycle repair shop in Fort Pierce . Prosecutors said Lenke shot Benson multiple times inside the shop, then poured a flammable liquid on him and set him on fire while he was still alive. Surveillance video from the shop captured the attack.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog