Two migrant workers from Myanmar have reportedly recanted their confessions in the Koh Tao murder case, according to a local website quoting Myanmar's 7Day Daily newspaper.
Koh Tao murder suspects Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, both 21, have reportedly withdrawn their confessions to police, after telling a Myanmar lawyer they were badly beaten and forced to admit they killed two English tourists last month. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)
According to the report, the pair told a lawyer from the Myanmar embassy they did not kill British tourists David Miller and Hannah Witheridge last month on Koh Tao in Surat Thani.
Attorney Aung Myo Thant from the Myanmar embassy made his comments after meeting with the two suspects, Zaw Rin and Win, who Thai police say confessed to the crime.
In Myanmar media reports, the lawyer said the two men told him they only confessed because they were forced to under torture. "They told me that they were on the beach that night drinking and singing songs," he said.
"They said they didn't do it, that the Thai police [along with their Myanmar-Thai translator] beat them until they confessed to something they didn't do. They're pleading with the Myanmar government to look into the case and find out the truth. They were a really pitiful sight. Their bodies had all sorts of bruises. I have already reported all that I have seen today to my government."
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Amnesty International said Wednesday Thailand must ensure an independent investigation into mounting allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by police as it probes the murder of the two Britons.
The group spoke out one day after national police chief Somyot Poompanmuang held a press conference in Bangkok to quash allegations on social media that his officers had framed the suspects.
Following the arrests for the murders of Witheridge, 23, and Miller, 24, on Sept 15, a lawyer from the Myanmar embassy's legal team, who met the suspects, said one of the men alleged police beat and threatened him with electrocution.
"The Thai authorities must initiate an independent, effective and transparent investigation into mounting allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by police," said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme director.
According to reports, police beat Myanmar migrant workers questioned in connection with the murders, threatened them and poured boiling water over them.
Meanwhile, Phaibul Achawananthakhun, chief of Koh Samui prosecutors, said the 300-page police report was incomplete in terms of the suspects' confessions.