Attorneys for two Myanmar men charged with killing two British backpackers on Koh Tao are scrambling to prepare their defence after a court moved up the first hearing date by two months.
Myanmar migrant workers Wai Phyo, left, and Zaw Lin are accused of killing two British tourists on Koh Tao in Surat Thani province. file photo
The Koh Samui Provincial Court asked prosecutors and lawyers for Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo to submit their cases a week ahead of the Dec 26 hearing. Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo pleaded not guilty on Monday.
The court had initially set the first hearing — where evidence would be examined and the first witnesses summoned — for Feb 25, but pushed it ahead to speed up the case that has faced intense global scrutiny.
The new schedule was confirmed by Tawatchai Siengjaew, chief of the Office of Public Prosecution Region 8, in an interview with INN news.
The two are charged with murdering David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, on Sairee beach on Koh Tao in Surat Thani province on Sept 15. They are also charged with raping Witheridge.
The two migrants confessed to investigators but later retracted their confessions on grounds that they were tortured and threatened. Police have denied the accusations.
National police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpunmuang met Keith Bristow, the director-general of the National Crime Agency, in London on Tuesday to explain the case to British authorities.
Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri, who was also there, said British police were satisfied with the Thai probe that led to the two suspects' arrest in early October.
The two wrote an open letter in Burmese on Dec 3 calling for justice and again on Tuesday calling for help from Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We were not involved in this crime. It is unjust that we are in jail. We want justice and equality," said the letter.