Unlawful questioning, torture and unreliable evidence are the key reasons the two Myanmar men accused of the murder of two Britons on Koh Tao should be acquitted, the defence lawyer team told a court Monday.
The team, working under the Lawyers Council of Thailand, submitted a 56-page closing statement to the Koh Samui Provincial Court.
The team is trying to convince the court to acquit two Myanmar suspects -- Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun. They are accused of raping and killing British tourist Hannah Witheridge, 23, and murdering David Miller, 24, on Koh Tao on Sept 15 last year.
The court will hand down its ruling on the case on Dec 24.
In their statement, the defence says the questioning and charging of the accused prior to their prosecution was unlawful. The accused were questioned as "witnesses" but this turned into confessions to murder and rape.
The accused were questioned without lawyers present and were not read their rights as criminal suspects or told the nature of offences they were charged with, the statement said.
Neither were the accused provided adequate translation and legal representation. The suspects' DNA samples were also taken from them involuntarily and are hence inadmissible as evidence in court, according to the lawyers.
It said the original confessions of the accused, cited by the prosecution in court, came about involuntarily from "torture" or "abuse" that made them fear for their lives and safety.
These written confessions, even if they had been signed, should not be considered by the court, said the team.
In addition, the lawyers said there is no link between the alleged murder weapon, a hoe, and the two suspects.
"DNA samples from the hoe don't match the accused DNA profiles but instead match the DNA profiles of other individuals."
According to the statement, the DNA evidence allegedly matching the accused as well as all circumstantial evidence in this case apparently showing the guilt of the two men is unreliable and should be inadmissible and not considered by the court.
"All of this evidence was not collected, tested or analysed in accordance with internationally accepted standards such as ISO 17025," it said. As a result, this evidence should not be considered as satisfying beyond reasonable doubt that the accused violently raped and murdered the female deceased or murdered the male deceased.
The lawyers also said there is an absence of evidence needed to prove the guilt of the accused, including photographs of the crime scene, autopsy and DNA analysis processes, chain of custody documents for forensic evidence, certain forensic evidence documents as well as detailed DNA analysis lab case notes.
Still, police investigators said earlier they are confident in their investigation and the evidence they gathered.
According to the investigators, the key evidence is not DNA on the hoe but samples collected from the body of Witheridge which matched that of the suspects.
