Koh Tao suspects to meet parents tomorrow

The parents of the two Myanmar migrant workers accused of killing two British tourists on Thailand’s southern island of Koh Tao will fly to Samui Island tomorrow to visit them in jail, according to migrant rights advocate Andy Hall who met the two 21-year-old suspects on Monday.

The parents are expected to be allowed to visit their sons tomorrow, after their arrival in Bangkok today and a meeting with defense lawyers at the Myanmar Embassy this afternoon. They left their hometown in Rakhine State on October 12 to Yangon to seek assistance and news about their sons.

According to Hall, the two migrant workers – Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun – recanted their confessions and a petition was filed to prosecutors by the Lawyers Council of Thailand, after three of its members interviewed the pair. 

The signed confessions were written in Thai, said Hall.

Hall, an adviser to the Migrant Worker Rights Network, expressed “deep concern” yesterday that the suspects were “being shackled 24/7 [with] heavy chains on their feet”.

“Lawyers informed me shackling of ‘accused’ suspects not convicted of any crime and 24/7 both in and outside prison seems unlawful/unfair,” he said on his Facebook page. 

After meeting them on Monday, Hall – who is also fluent in Thai and Burmese – said the two were eager to meet their parents and were aware of the outpouring of support for them within Myanmar, Thailand and the UK. British police are expected to arrive in Thailand next week to observe the controversial case in which the Thai police have been accused of using the two Myanmar nationals as scapegoats for the brutal murder of the two young British tourists.

Both insisted they had nothing with the murder and that they had been tortured into confessing, Thai and British media reported today.  

Both are charged over the September 15 murder of two British tourists on Koh Tao and are being detained at a prison on nearby Samui Island.

Myanmar National Human Rights Commission chairman Win Mra yesterday sent a formal request to the chairperson of National Human Rights Commission of Thailand urging that the two suspects not be subjected to torture or ill treatment.

The letter also calls for the commission to ensure a fair trial amidst widespread allegations that they are being used as scapegoats by the Thai police.

The letter follows a statement by Thai National Human Rights Commissioner Niran Pitakwachara on Monday that the commission would meet with authorities to determine if there was evidence to suspect that they had used force or torture to force the suspects to confess. He told Thai media that the suspects had informed members of the commission that they had been tortured. 

The letter from the Myanmar rights watchdog notes widespread allegations that the suspects had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the Thai police in order to extract confession. As a result, it is appealing to its Thai counterpart to ensure that the suspects are not subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment in accordance with the stipulations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The letter also requests that the Thai rights commission urge the Thai government to ensure that officials of the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Bangkok can visit the two suspects and that their parents  are allowed to visit their sons in prison.