UK, Myanmar 'can observe'
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PM says representatives welcome to inspect Koh Tao murder site with local police
The United Kingdom and Myanmar are welcome to “observe” progress on the Koh Tao murders case and can send personnel to visit the site and gather information alongside Thai police, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday.
Although the Thai side is confident that police have arrested the right people for the murder of two British backpackers, Prayut said police were ready to share information with both countries if they remain suspicious.
The premier was speaking after ambassadors from the two countries met with Police chief Pol General Somyot Pumpanmuang and Foreign Ministry officials and were briefed on details of the investigation that led to the arrest of two migrant workers from Myanmar.
The ambassadors sought permission to send representatives to observe and follow up on the investigation with Thai police, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said.
Officials from Britain and Myanmar are involved in the matter because two Britons were killed on the tourist island off the Surat Thani coast on September 15, while two Myanmar nationals were recently accused of the murders.
Sek said representatives from the UK and Myanmar would be able to follow up on the case until it reaches court for trial.
The ambassadors attended a three-hour meeting at the Foreign Ministry, with a deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, Kiattikhun Chartprasert, taking part.
Sek said representatives from both countries would take part in the observation, while the police would assign liaison officers to directly coordinate with both countries.
Documents on updates would be handed regularly to both countries during the observation process, he added.
Kiattikhun informed the meeting that Prayut attached a great deal of importance to the case and the investigation, the spokesman said.
Somyot, meanwhile, said the discussion with the ambassadors was not so much a meeting, but rather an explanation about how the police had solved the case and clarification of what he said was a quick process that had been widely questioned by sceptics.
The ambassadors now have a better understanding of the police’s work and did not express any suspicion over it, he said.
“And if British authorities want to take part in the observation, the Thai police would welcome it. There will be no anxiety, as the police believe that the investigation results have come out right,” he added.
Meanwhile, the British ambassador, Mark Kent, sought a meeting at 1.30pm tomorrow with the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission to discuss how the Thai media has reported the murders.
Advanced testimony
Advanced testimony by three state witnesses in the murder case was given at Surat Thani provincial court yesterday, despite complaints by human-rights activist Andy Hall that the case was hurried.
The judges had been convinced by public prosecutors that advanced testimony would not put the two defendants at a disadvantage, as the statements were not crucial information against them.
Moreover, the case is currently in the public prosecutors’ authority, and not yet at the trial stage, when it would fall fully under the court’s jurisdiction.
Advanced testimonies are allowed under Thai procedural regulations, when the individuals involved are foreigners – either as state or defence witnesses.
Before the session began, Hall asked that the testimony be postponed for another month, as two lawyers had been newly assigned by the Lawyers Council of Thailand to represent the defendants after their lawyer, Phailbook Nunraksa, withdrew his services.
Police have charged the two migrant workers from Myanmar with the murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23. The tourists’ battered bodies were found on Koh Tao a month ago.
Police have said the men confessed to the crime and their DNA matched samples taken from Witheridge’s body.
However, unease over the case has deepened amid reports that the suspects were tortured into confessing – a claim the police have strongly denied.
The British ambassador yesterday posted on his Facebook page that he had had a meeting lasting nearly three hours with Thai police, the Foreign Ministry, the Burmese ambassador and delegation on the Koh Tao murders, but gave no details about what was discussed.
Before the meeting, an official from the Myanmar president’s office in Nay Pyi Daw told Agence France-Presse that he hoped the talks “would help bring a fair and genuine investigation” into the case, which many have accused the Thai authorities of mishandling.
“We hope Thai authorities will act with balance and accuracy to prosecute the offenders according to the law and not take action wrongly against those who didn’t commit the crime,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Thai representative summoned
On Monday, Hugo Swire, the UK minister for the Far East and Southeast Asia, summoned the Thai charges d’affaires to the UK, Nadhavathna Krishnamra, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to raise his concerns about the investigation into the murders of the two Britons.
Swire stressed that there was a real concern in the United Kingdom about how the investigation had been handled by the Thai authorities, and said it was crucial for the investigation to be conducted in a fair and transparent way.
