Thursday, 14 February 2013 17:35 Mizzima News
Convicted murderer and drug trafficker Naw Kham “still has a chance, though slim, of escaping a death sentence,” said a report on Wednesday in the Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.), citing sources at the Sino-Myanmar border.
On December 20 Naw Kham withdrew his guilty plea after being handed the death sentence at a court in China for the murder of 13 sailors on the Mekong River in October 2011.
Three of Naw Kham’s accomplices were also given death sentences while another received an eight-year jail term.
According to the S.H.A.N. report, an informed source said that unlike his accomplices who were caught on CCTV cameras, Naw Kham’s guilt was established by conjecture. “Authorities believed the killing wouldn’t have been carried out without his orders,” the source stated.
A Thai legal consultant was reported as agreeing with that analysis. “You must know by now that lawyers don’t play by the truth, but only by the rules,” he told S.H.A.N. “They [truth and rules] are not always the same.”
Naw Kham is being defended by a Hong Kong-based lawyer. His appeal now awaits a final decision from Beijing.
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For more background:
- Burmese drug lord’s final appeal rejected
- Warrants issued for Thai solders in Mekong murders
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