Oct. 5
THAILAND:
Thailand beach murders: 2 Burmese suspects appear in court----The pair have
been remanded in custody for a further 12 days and face the death penalty if
convicted
Burmese men have appeared in court charged with murdering Brit backpackers
Hannah Witheridge and David Miller.
According to police, the 2 men named Saw and Wyn, have admitted killing the
pair on Koh Tao beach.
They are also charged with rape and robbery, and appeared before a judge on the
neighbouring island of Koh Samui.
The alleged killers were remanded in custody for another 12 days.
If convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Yesterday the pair were paraded in front of officers in an unusual
reconstruction of the crime.
Wearing crash helmets and police vests the suspected murderers were taken to
the same beach the young Brits were killed on.
A tourist was chosen to play 24-year-old David while a female TV journalist
took the role of Hannah.
As well as the media, hundreds of locals came to watch.
Tourists lined up to film the event and 1 couple had to be told not to cross
police lines. Illegal immigrants Saw and Wyn, both 21, worked in a local bar.
Another man, known only as Mau, is also being questioned.
On the night of the killing all 3 were on the beach, smoking and singing while
1 played the guitar.
David and Hannah, who had just met, had been drinking in a nearby bar.
The 3 men watched as the couple walked past and then stopped behind rocks.
Saw showed officers how he grabbed a hoe from a nearby vegetable garden and
then brought it down on the back of David's head before dragging him into the
sea.
Police say both men then took turns raping Hannah while alternately smoking.
Then Wyn allegedly smashed her head repeatedly with the same hoe which he threw
away. It was found next morning.
Thailand's national police chief, Gen Somyot Poompanmoung, said Saw and Wyn
will now face murder, rape and theft charges.
He claimed: "These 2 suspects are the men who committed the crime.
"We brought them back to the beach so they could show us what they did.
"We also discovered one of them had a mobile phone of one of the victims and
the motorbikes they used that night."
Gen Poompanmoung said DNA results, CCTV footage and other evidence confirmed
the men's confessions that they had raped and killed Hannah and murdered David.
Both are expected to appear in court on the mainland early next week.
Post-mortem examinations revealed University of East Anglia graduate Hannah
died from head wounds while David was killed by severe blows to the head and
drowning.
A full inquest will be held in the UK on January 6.
(source: Daily Mirror)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Man on rape charge escaped from police bus as he feared death penalty, Dubai
court hears
A man who feared being given the death penalty for a rape charge escaped from a
police bus after freeing himself from handcuffs.
KA, 32, then took off to Ajman in a car driven by MA, 29.
The bus was taking him and 12 others from court to holding cells at Al
Rashidiya police station.
Dubai Court of Misdemeanours heard that the Comoros Islands passport holder is
facing a rape charge at the Criminal Court.
He wriggled his hand free from a handcuff linking him to another prisoner
before he made off, first in a taxi and then with his compatriot in the car.
The incident happened on June 12 as policeman AA, 52, was taking the detainees
from the Dubai Courts complex to their cells.
The bus arrived at the police station and stopped in the car park, but before
the officer managed to secure the detainees into their cells, the inmate
escaped.
AA was accused of helping the detainee to escape, which he denied.
"I did not do that. I was assigned to carry 13 detainees and I had ask-ed for
more officers to secure detainees at the time," he told prosecutors.
The escaped inmate was in custody again 2 days later when police tracked down
the car that had picked him up.
They also arrested MA, who was charged with aiding and hiding a detainee.
The escapee said he was told by a lawyer that he would be given the death
penalty in his rape case, so he decided to flee.
When questioned by police, the driver said he did not know KA was on the run,
but thought he was out on bail.
However, prosecutors said that the driver had confessed to helping his
compatriot.
"I picked him up and asked him how he managed to escape. He told me that he was
handcuffed to a Pakistani detainee and managed to cut loose then run away,"
prosecutors quoted him as saying.
"He told me he hailed a cab from near the police station and headed to Al
Tuwar, from where I picked him up.
"Then we both went to Ajman, where I was arrested 2 days later.
"KA told me that he had asked the policeman to loosen his handcuffs because
they were tight and hurting him, and after the policeman did so he managed to
escape."
The negligence charge against the policeman was dismissed but the escapee was
convicted and sentenced to 6 months, to be followed by deportation.
The driver was acquitted.
(source: The National)
INDIA:
Hang 'honour-killers', says former SC judge Markandey Katju
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has said only death penalty to the
perpetrators will be able to eradicate the scourge of honour-killings in India.
"The only way to eradicate such monstrous acts is giving death penalty to those
found guilty", said the Press Council chairman in his blog posted on Saturday.
Justice Katju referred to the most recent instance that happened in Madurai on
Thursday, Gandhi Jayanti, when a young girl, belonging a backward community,
was allegedly burnt alive by her parents in Madurai for marrying a Dalit lover.
"I have said, with Justice Gyansudha Misra, in a judgment (Bhagwan Das Vs State
of Delhi, 2011) that 'honour-killing must have only 1 punishment, death. We
must strike terror in the hearts of these barbaric, feudal minded killers by
hanging them. That alone will send a message that such horrendous acts are
simply unacceptable in the modern age", said Justice Katju.
He said it was tragic that Indians regarded a section of their own people, the
Dalits, as inferiors even after more than 200 years since those memorable words
in the American Declaration of Independence - 'We hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal'.
"When I said that we are still largely a very backward country, full of
casteism and communalism, I was furiously attacked by some 'patriots'. But do
such horrid deeds not show the truth of my statement? How many of us are
willing to accept their daughter marrying a Dalit boy, even if he has a good
character and is financially well off?" wondered Justice Katju, while recalling
that in another case, Lata Singh vs State of U.P., he had said that if the
parents disapproved of their daughter marrying someone, the maximum they could
do was to break off social relations with her. They have no right to harm her.
"But who listens to me? I have been accused of being a maverick, a publicity
seeker, a person with a foot in the mouth disease, a crazy person, a person
with a hidden agenda, and even (by one Chief Minister) a dog, when all I have
been trying to do all along was to spread rationalism and scientific thinking
to take my country forward", Justice Katju said.
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
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