Hackers take down Thai websites over tourist murders verdict
Wed 13 Jan 2016
International hacktivist group Anonymous is claiming responsibility for the alleged attacks on hundreds of official Thai government websites, after two migrant workers were sentenced to death for the murder of two British tourists.
The disputed sentencing of two Myanmar migrants, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, both aged 22, took place on the 24th December, after the court found them guilty of murdering tourists Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, on the island of Koh Tao in 2014.
According to police reports, Witheridge had been raped and bludgeoned to death, while Miller had suffered severe head injuries and was left to drown in the sea.
The investigation was surrounded by allegations of police incompetence, torture and mishandling of evidence. The claims were rejected by the police, but the verdict resulted in wide-spread protest in Myanmar, with many arguing that the two migrants, who pleaded innocence, were scapegoats.
Some experts believe that the police had coerced Lin and Htun into confessing. The police have also denied this allegation.
Posting on its We Are Anonymous Facebook page, the group wrote that it had pulled over 200 Thai sites offline in protest. ‘Anonymous shuts down all Thai Court of Justice website in protest over the Koh Tao murder verdict. Anonymous is supporting the campaign to ask tourists to boycott Thailand,’ the post read.
Anonymous also uploaded a black and white image of the Guy Fawkes figure associated with the movement wearing a blindfold. Text below the face read: ‘Failed Law. We Want Justice! #BoycottThailand.’
The Civil Court of Thailand’s main site was not available today, but the Courts of Justice website, which Anonymous claimed it had hacked, was running normally.
Somporn Daengdee, deputy chief police officer of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, said that the department had not received any reports of government website hacking but were investigating the matter.
