Rakhine group urges Thai PM to reopen probe into murders
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The Rakhine National Network has said it will send an open letter to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha about the Myanmar men charged with murdering two British tourists on Koh Tao.
The network published the letter on Friday on its Facebook page, requesting that the case be re-examined to find the real culprits while calling for greater cooperation between Thailand, Myanmar and Britain to resolve the case.
In the letter, the group said it wanted the case to be reconsidered, as it believed Zaw Linn and Win Zaw Tun were wrongly accused of murders that occurred in an area where many gangs operated.
Meanwhile, the parents of Win Zaw Tun, who live in Kyaukphyu Township in Rakhine State, want to visit their son in jail in Thailand. The two are from Ramree Island and Kyaukphyu in Rakhine.
“After his mother read the report in a newspaper, she cried a lot,” Tun Tun Htike, Win Zaw Tun’s father said. “She is very eager to go there to meet her son. But we have no money and no idea how to get there.”
Myanmar nationals living in Japan staged a protest recently in front of the Thai embassy in Tokyo, handing over a letter to an official demanding that the government find strong evidence in the case.
However, National Police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung reiterated that the investigation had been carried out in a transparent manner, saying that the scapegoat era that saw innocent people charged with crimes may have existed in the past but not under his command. He called on people to stop speculating and making claims about the case on social media.
