Burmese Fortune Teller ET Appeals to Thai King in Koh Tao Murder Sentencing
By Lawi Weng 4 May 2017
Well-known mystic and fortune teller Daw Swe Swe Win—popularly known as ET—met the Thai ambassador to Burma yesterday in Rangoon, delivering a petition intended for Thailand’s king. The letter requested amnesty in the case of two Burmese migrants sentenced to death for the double-murder of two British backpackers on the Thai island of Koh Tao in 2014.
ET handed her statement to H.E. Jukr Boon-Long, who will deliver the petition to the Thai king, HM Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun.
Burmese migrant workers Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin were sentenced to death for the crime, but their lawyers have appealed to Thailand’s Supreme Court, citing discrepancies in the investigation and in the preservation of the chain of evidence. They maintain that the defendants are innocent.
In her petition letter, ET said that Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin had been “falsely arrested and convicted” in the murder case, which has been ongoing for nearly three years. The two young men were arrested in October 2014, one month after the crime took place. On Dec. 24, 2015, it was announced that they would receive the death sentence. A petition against the sentencing followed in May 2016, but was rejected in the township court.
ET’s petition letter said that the people of Burma anticipate hearing a positive outcome in the appeal process from the King, and that she had prayed at pagodas in Thailand, making “a solemn wish” for “justice and truth” in the case, so as to advance the reputations of both Thailand and Burma.
ET has been consulted as a fortune teller for both Burmese and Thai figures, including former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“We do appreciate fortune teller ET and her team…it will be very helpful for the case,” wrote U Htoo Chit on Facebook, director of the Foundation for Education Development, an organization assisting Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. He also has been providing assistance in the two convicted migrant workers’ legal case, and added that he hoped ET’s petition would help Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin.
