The government has insisted both the British and Myanmar embassies in Thailand "have no problems" with the Thai police's handling of the Sept 15 murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao even as police face claims the Myanmar suspects were tortured.
The most-photographed pair in Thailand Tuesday were the two Myanmar murder suspects Zaw Rim and Win, both 21, after their court appearance in Surat Thani. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)
Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn said he was confident the case would not lead to any disputes between Thailand and Myanmar because he had spoken with the embassy and it did not have any problems with the investigation results.
His remarks came after the police held a press conference Tuesday to insist on the accuracy of the investigation which had resulted in charges against two Myanmar men.
Police and diplomatic sources said that the British ambassador or a senior embassy official would attend the press conference. Instead, the embassy was not represented.
The bodies of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found on a beach of the southern island of Koh Tao in Surat Thani province on Sept 15.
Police pursued the case for more than two weeks before they detained three Myanmar migrant workers, two of whom were charged over the murders while the other was treated as an eyewitness.
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National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang defended the arrest of the two Myanmar men for the murders even though the suspects claimed they were tortured by police while in custody.
"I must stress that all the officials involved in this case have done a good job," Pol Gen Somyot said.
He pointed to the five reasons why the police charged the suspects.
These were the accounts of the murders and rape provided by a Myanmar friend of the two suspects who was being treated as an eyewitness to the crime; the positive DNA matches between the samples taken from the two Myanmar suspects and those retrieved from Witheridge's body; the images of the suspects captured by closed-circuit security cameras; the mobile phone belonging to Miller which police retrieved from the suspects' living quarters; and the suspects' own alleged confessions to the murders and rape.
However, many inside and outside Thailand beg to differ.
"It seems to us like this case is a set-up and not based on hard facts," Aung Myo Thant, a lawyer appointed by the Myanmar embassy to defend 21-year-old suspects Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, told the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an independent Myanmar news website based in Norway.
In the interview with the DVB, which provided the suspects' full names which Thai police have yet to divulge, Aung Myo Thant said there were "inconsistencies with both the forensic report and evidence provided in the case".
Contradicting earlier reports that Myanmar embassy officials were satisfied with explanations provided by Thai authorities over the arrest of their nationals, Htun Aye, the embassy's second secretary, told the Bangkok Post Tuesday it was too early to say whether his team was satisfied with all the information they were given by authorities.
Pol Maj Gen Suwat Jaengyodsuk, acting deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the reason why no DNA from the two suspects was found on either the hoe the police believed the suspects used to murder the victims or a used condom found near the crime scene was because the DNA on both items was probably flushed out by sea water or there was some other form of contamination.
An informed source said Pol Maj Gen Suwat, who headed the Koh Tao murder investigation, went to the Army Club on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road to attend a meeting on the preparation for the official visit of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to Myanmar tomorrow and Friday.
Gen Prayut had emphasised that an English-language brief with details about the police investigation of the murders would be ready before his visit, in the event his Myanmar counterpart inquired about it during their meeting, said the same source.
The premier, however, did not want it to be stated in the brief that the suspects were Myanmar citizens and they should instead be described as "alien workers", according to the same source.
Public prosecutors have decided to set up a committee to examine the case following the charges against the two suspects of premeditated murder, rape, physical assault and theft.
"The prosecutors do not feel pressured by speculation that the suspects are actually scapegoats because the prosecutors will base their decisions on the police investigation report which will include witness accounts and items of evidence," said Santhanee Disayabutr, deputy spokesperson of the Office of the Attorney-General.