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ABOUT 200 special police are to be used to keep angry residents away from the murder scene on Koh Tao while a Burmese witness to the killings - allegedly by two other Burmese - explains to officers what he saw that night. It's a reenactment of the kind usually conducted in Thailand.
Original Report
PHUKET: Thai media outlets claim today that the DNA of two Burmese matches DNA found on the bodies of murdered British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller. Police have yet to confirm the claim.
Three Burmese are being held on the Thai holiday island of Koh Tao and are likely to be charged today if the reports emanating from several sources in Thailand prove true.
The Commander of the Royal Thai Police, General Somyos Pumpanmuang, has travelled to Koh Tao and is expected to announce today that investigators believe they have solved the September 15 murders.
Witheridge, 23, and Miller, 24, were savagely bludgeoned to death in a small rocky beach cove.
Since the discovery of their bodies, police have pursued several fruitless leads and only days ago focused on the three Burmese.
Named today in the Thai media were Win, 21, Sor, 21, who worked at a pub bar restaurant on the holiday island and Mao, 23. Win was arrested on the mainland in Surat Thani town. Sor and Mao were held on Koh Tao.
Win has allegedly confessed to the killings. He has allegedly told police, according to the Thai media, that he saw the British couple making love.
According to Thai PBS, the other two Burmese have also subsequently confessed.
The Burmese were being questioned extensively yesterday and migrant worker activists fear any confessions could have been extracted under duress.
Mao told police he was playing a guitar under a tamarind tree on the night of the murders. He said a butt found near the bodies was from a cigarette that had been smoked by him.
Reading through British press it's obvious this "confession" is viewed with a high degree of suspicion and some openly talk about using Burmese as scapegoats. Despite what the police will present as "evidence", they will have a very tough time convincing the international public unless they let British investigators have full access to the case files, suspects and evidence. That will never happen though. Can you imagine the position Thai police would be put in if British investigators came to a different conclusion ?
Posted by Herbert on October 3, 2014 09:18
Editor Comment:
The less reliable sections of the British media, like some tabloids in Thailand, usually run with the most sensational material then offer a 'clarification' that allows two bites at the cherry. As we have reported, the most thorough test of the Thai investigation will come in a British coroners court on January 6. The British media is probably more splintered and mixed than the Thai media.