Lawyers ask for more time
Witnesses lack courage to confirm that the suspects were framed, they say
LAWYERS for the two Myanmar migrant workers accused of brutally killing two British tourists on Koh Tao last year have appealed for more time to prove that the defendants are scapegoats.
“I don’t think we can have all of the witnesses [before today],” chief defence lawyer Nakhon Chomphupat said outside Koh Samui Provincial Court yesterday.
The court has been hearing this high-profile case after public prosecutors arraigned Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun for the double murder in a case that has generated huge local and international media coverage.
The victims were beaten to death and the female victim was also raped.
Nakhon and his team have been trying to convince the judge that Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were framed by police, who were under pressure to solve the case as it hurt Thailand’s image as a tourism haven.
The defence tentatively had until today to wrap up its case, but Nakhon said his team was having problems convincing some witnesses to testify as they feared retribution.
“There’s a problem. Our informers lack the courage to stand as witnesses because some of them still work on Koh Tao,” he said.
Janjira Khanpaeng, who sits on a National Human Rights Commission’s subcommittee, yesterday took the witness stand for the defence team.
Janjira said the NHRC chair had assigned her to look into this case.
She said she met the defendants’ friend Mao Mao, who told her he implicated them in the crime after police tortured him.
Yesterday’s hearing was not as stressful as Wednesday’s hearing, when human-rights activist Andy Hall testified from 9am to 7.40pm.
During the session, Hall disclosed that a fund-raising campaign for the defendants’ defence had raised Bt2.5 million but the cost of the defence had already exceeded the fund.
Evidence sent to UK
He said some evidence had been sent to the United Kingdom for examination.
Police stand by their probe and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ruled out foul play.
Allegations of torture and police misconduct have caused a stir in the UK and its prime minister, David Cameron, raised those concerns during a meeting with Prayut, who agreed to allow British police to carry out their own internal investigation.
The British police have refused to disclose their final report to any one other than the victims’ families, as a pre-agreed condition.
