PHUKET: The family of a US citizen murdered on the Thai holiday island of Phuket is petitioning the British High Court to have his alleged killer returned speedily to Phuket to face trial.
Extraditing the alleged killer, Lee ''Pitbull'' Aldhouse, from Britain to Thailand would set a precedent. And because the case involves the murder of an American citizen, authorities in the US, Britain and Thailand are anxiously awaiting the British High Court's decision.
However, most anxious of all for justice are the family and friends of the murder victim, former Marine Dashawn Longfellow.
The family and friends are now calling for signatures to an internet petition to urge British justice to get a move on.
The legal process has been delayed in Britain more than once as Aldhouse's legal team take every possible action to prevent their client becoming the first British citizen extradited to Thailand, where a conviction for murder could carry a life sentence.
According to Aldhouse's lawyers, imprisonment in a Thai jail would infringe his rights. Thai jails, including Phuket Prison, are certainly more crowded and more basic than those in Britain.
The friends and family of Dashawn Longfellow, however, take the view that Aldhouse, whom they believe is Longfellow's killer, should be swiftly sent to Thailand.
Now they have launched a Facebook petition following a report that the British High Court had postponed hearing the appeal, due to begin in May in London, on a request from Mr Aldhouse's solicitors.
The petition says: ''Lee Aldhouse should be extradited back to Thailand to stand trial for the murder of our son, brother, cousin, and friend Dashawn Longfellow. This extradition process has been delayed for almost 2 years due to him claiming the Thai prisons have inhumane living conditions. I've not read or heard of any claims that he didn't murder him..... just that he would rather not suffer in a Thai jail for doing it.
He took a life and should of (sic) thought of that before killing Dashawn.
PLEASE sign the petition to have this man sent back to Thailand to face his charges....
JUSTICE FOR DASHAWN!!!!!''
Coupled with the precedent that would be set if extradition takes place, the notion of a group of Americans petitioning the British High Court via the Internet to have an alleged murderer extradited to Thailand poses the freshest twist in a Phuket case that is already noteworthy.
Although it would mean footing the bill for the probable long-term imprisonment of a man from one foreign country accused of killing a man from another foreign country while on holiday in a third country, Thai authorities are anxious to have Aldhouse back on Phuket to stand trial.
There is also the US perspective. If on a point of law the British High Court rejected extradition, American authorities are likely to be asked by Longfellow's family and friends to find some other way of ensuring that justice is done.
The case against Aldhouse is known to be powerful, including as it does footage taken in a Phuket 7-Eleven store of a man who looks a lot like Aldhouse scooping two knives from the floor and going out the door in an apparent rage.
Soon afterwards, Dashawn Longfellow was knifed to death in an ambush as he returned to his Phuket apartment. Aldhouse had started a fight at a local bar earlier in the night, a fight that Aldhouse lost.
Longfellow was killed in August 2010. His family and friends are clearly weary of the wait for a form of international justice that has first to clear the High Court in Britain before the question of Aldhouse's innocence or guilt can even be raised on Phuket.
The British High Court has yet to reveal when the Aldhouse appeal will be heard.
Facebook site RIP Dashawn DC Longfellow contains a link to the change.org petition organised by Longfellow's family and friends.
Footage from inside the 7-Eleven can be viewed at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvuYakEINGg
CNN coverage with Phuketwan can be viewed at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/17/thailand.kickboxing.killer/?hpt=T2#fbid=j8b3WNTelG3&wom=false
Extraditing the alleged killer, Lee ''Pitbull'' Aldhouse, from Britain to Thailand would set a precedent. And because the case involves the murder of an American citizen, authorities in the US, Britain and Thailand are anxiously awaiting the British High Court's decision.
However, most anxious of all for justice are the family and friends of the murder victim, former Marine Dashawn Longfellow.
The family and friends are now calling for signatures to an internet petition to urge British justice to get a move on.
The legal process has been delayed in Britain more than once as Aldhouse's legal team take every possible action to prevent their client becoming the first British citizen extradited to Thailand, where a conviction for murder could carry a life sentence.
According to Aldhouse's lawyers, imprisonment in a Thai jail would infringe his rights. Thai jails, including Phuket Prison, are certainly more crowded and more basic than those in Britain.
The friends and family of Dashawn Longfellow, however, take the view that Aldhouse, whom they believe is Longfellow's killer, should be swiftly sent to Thailand.
Now they have launched a Facebook petition following a report that the British High Court had postponed hearing the appeal, due to begin in May in London, on a request from Mr Aldhouse's solicitors.
The petition says: ''Lee Aldhouse should be extradited back to Thailand to stand trial for the murder of our son, brother, cousin, and friend Dashawn Longfellow. This extradition process has been delayed for almost 2 years due to him claiming the Thai prisons have inhumane living conditions. I've not read or heard of any claims that he didn't murder him..... just that he would rather not suffer in a Thai jail for doing it.
He took a life and should of (sic) thought of that before killing Dashawn.
PLEASE sign the petition to have this man sent back to Thailand to face his charges....
JUSTICE FOR DASHAWN!!!!!''
Coupled with the precedent that would be set if extradition takes place, the notion of a group of Americans petitioning the British High Court via the Internet to have an alleged murderer extradited to Thailand poses the freshest twist in a Phuket case that is already noteworthy.
Although it would mean footing the bill for the probable long-term imprisonment of a man from one foreign country accused of killing a man from another foreign country while on holiday in a third country, Thai authorities are anxious to have Aldhouse back on Phuket to stand trial.
There is also the US perspective. If on a point of law the British High Court rejected extradition, American authorities are likely to be asked by Longfellow's family and friends to find some other way of ensuring that justice is done.
The case against Aldhouse is known to be powerful, including as it does footage taken in a Phuket 7-Eleven store of a man who looks a lot like Aldhouse scooping two knives from the floor and going out the door in an apparent rage.
Soon afterwards, Dashawn Longfellow was knifed to death in an ambush as he returned to his Phuket apartment. Aldhouse had started a fight at a local bar earlier in the night, a fight that Aldhouse lost.
Longfellow was killed in August 2010. His family and friends are clearly weary of the wait for a form of international justice that has first to clear the High Court in Britain before the question of Aldhouse's innocence or guilt can even be raised on Phuket.
The British High Court has yet to reveal when the Aldhouse appeal will be heard.
Facebook site RIP Dashawn DC Longfellow contains a link to the change.org petition organised by Longfellow's family and friends.
Phuketwan Exclusive Coverage
Footage from inside the 7-Eleven can be viewed at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvuYakEINGg
CNN coverage with Phuketwan can be viewed at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/17/thailand.kickboxing.killer/?hpt=T2#fbid=j8b3WNTelG3&wom=false
Thats right!! Let it be known!! I'm Dashawn's sister and that piece of trash needs to be sent back! Wait lets make it easy just put him in a closed arena with me and all of our family and the marines....justice? I think so!
Posted by Sabr???? on June 2, 2012 09:42