When Looking for a Culprit, find someone from Burma to blame

[Brad the Impala]

The update in the trial of two Burmese men charged with the murder of two foreigners on Koh Tao is that the historically independent Porntip, the leading Forensic Scientist in Thailand, has found that there are DNA samples on the alleged murder weapon, a garden hoe.

Thai police had previously said firstly, that there was DNA from the two accused on the hoe, but then subsequently admitted that they had never tested the hoe for DNA. Porntip not only found DNA on the hoe but found that it belonged to two people, neither of whom was the accused! She, and the defendants' lawyers, have been requesting independent testing of a condom, cigarette butts and the victims' clothing, that prosecutors claim link the accused to the victims, for six months, but the police have refused access.

I wonder why...........

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crime/690016/porntip-dna-on-koh-tao-weapon-doesn-t-match-defendants

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34217544

[bruce_nyc]

So scary.

[Oliver]

I'm amazed that Burmese haven't been rounded-up ("the usual suspects") for the bombs.

[Brad the Impala]

In the latest update on this according to reports the burmese men on trial have claimed that only were they tortured by the police but punched by their interpreter.

The most surprising and concerning element of all is that:

"The trial was extended by two days to allow for the testimony from the defendants. However two of the three judges who had been present for the previous 19 days of the trial were replaced in court by two new judges."!!

http://thailandjustice.com/man-accused-of-murdering-norfolk-student-hannah-witheridge-claims-he-was-beaten-and-threatened-by-thai-police/

What was that about justice not only being done but being seen to be done..................

What was that about justice not only being done but being seen to be done..................What indeed? After more than two decades of association with Thailand you still believe there's such a thing as "justice" in Thailand. In this instance, as in so many, your bleeding heart credentials are once again on display. There's a substantial body of academic research about how societies behave towards outsiders; the Thais are behaving entirely according to the "outsider" model. None of us should be surprised.

Taking the Burmese specifically, look at how they treat their own outsiders - the Rohingyas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Muslims_in_Myanmar). Those posters here who fantasise about Buddhism being a religion of peace and love (or even not a religion at all) haven't considered the 969 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/969_Movement) movement.

If you want some really nasty behaviour towards outsiders, look no further than the extreme Hindu nationalists (http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2015/10/indias-hindu-fundamentalists-151008073418225.html). They hate Moslems and Christians - not truly Indian, do you see: outsiders.

Finally there's the novel by Camus - L'Etranger (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/09/outsider-albert-camus-smith-review) - translated sometimes as The Stranger and sometimes as The Outsider - and Camus is oftentimes held up as a gay cult figure, although his original sense of being an outsider possibly arose because he wasn't (in some eyes) truly French, but born in Algeria (a "pied-noir"), rather than gay - another form of outsider-ness: "Let's enjoy ourselves,it may be the last time. Is there anything you have wanted to do and never done ? If there is,better do it now."

To return to your post. Do I detect gloating? It's so difficult to be sure simply from the written word of someone who you may have never met, don't you agree? But of course, you don't. You're an absolute expert on it. =))

[Brad the Impala]

What was that about justice not only being done but being seen to be done..................What indeed? After more than two decades of association with Thailand you still believe there's such a thing as "justice" in Thailand.

At what point in this or any other post have I written that I believe in the Thai judicial system?!!

My point was precisely the reverse that by changing the judges after the trial has already been running for some time, it looks as if not only may justice not be done, that's been pretty much a given so far, but that the system doesn't even care whether justice appears not to be done, eg changing the judges towards the end of the trial!

PS thanks for cutting and pasting from your A level literature exam. I take it you didn't pass.

Ah, I was right, it was gloating