Koh Tao murders: Confessions have not been retracted, say police. (Updated Sunday)
(Latest) Did the two Myanmar suspects confess to the murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao or didn't they? Pol Maj Gen Praween Pongsirin insists they did. So does the translator who allegedly heard them (interview included).
(Latest) Did the two Myanmar suspects confess to the murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao or didn't they? Pol Maj Gen Praween Pongsirin insists they did. So does the translator who allegedly heard them (interview included).
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Sunday
Pol Maj Gen Praween Pongsirin, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8. Inset: translator via Channel 3
First, here are excerpts from this morning's Bangkok Post:
Police deny confessions retracted
Police on Saturday denied the two Koh Tao murder suspects had retracted their confessions, as the troubled case took a new twist.
Pol Maj Gen Praween Pongsirin said that Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin had confessed to the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao on Sept 15, a case which has attracted intense international scrutiny and criticism.
The deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8 said the two suspects have maintained their confessions and repented their crime. Their widely reported retraction was simply a rumour, he said.
Pol Maj Gen Praween also denied that prosecutors had rejected the investigation case file as incomplete, saying the police's evidence was accurate and strong.
A panel of prosecutors had merely asked the police investigators to review the case and to maximise the punishment in light of evidence the suspects had tried to cover up their crime, he said.
Translator interviewed
Channel 3's "Three-dimensional news" programme went to Koh Samui to find and interview the Myanmar Muslim roti seller who acted as a translator for the Myanmar suspects after their arrest. He is from Yangon and has lived in Thailand for 18 years. He also acts as a volunteer, helping the tourist police.
Channel 3 said the man was willing to do the interview which took place in the presence of a plainclothes (out-of-uniform) policeman. (The summary that follows is my own from the video.)
He first talked to Maung, the man seen in riding in the middle position of a motorcycle caught in CCTV footage leaving a 7-11 the night of the murders. The motorcycle was driven by Zaw Rin and the man behind was Win. Both have been charged with the murders.
Maung readily admitted that he was with the two and that they had bought beer at the 7-11. From his information, police then detained Zaw Rin. Win, however, had fled to Surat Thani where he was eventually detained.
According to the translator, Maung said he was not present when the murders took place. He had left his friends at 1am to meet his girlfriend so he did not know about anything that took place afterwards.
On the day of the crime re-enactment, the translator said he was told by police to talk to the Zaw Rin, Win and Maung – about anything, the police said. The translator said no police were present during the meeting.
He said Zaw Rin and Win admitted that they had indeed committed the murders and that they confirmed that Maung had left earlier. They said they were drunk and that they bludgeoned the heads of the tourists. The first weapon was a large bottle of wine which was used by Win on David Miller. Then Win used a hoe was used to finish the job.
Meanwhile, Zaw Rin had taken Hannah some distance away. She resisted and screamed, so he hit her with the same hoe. Win was the first to rape her, the translator said. He said the two did not leave the island immediately because it was difficult to do so with the police keeping a close watch.
The translator said that the two suspects had not been coerced into confessing and the DNA matches makes their stories credible. The suspects clothes showed no signs of blood since it had been washed, the translator said.
Friday
Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha meets with Myanmar's President Thein Sein. PATTARAPONG CHATPATTARASILL
(Latest) Most of the new information continues to come from Myanmar sources. Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has met with Myanmar's President Thein Sein who reported asked that the Thais carry out a clearn fair investigation (detail below) . This afternoon, however, Post Today reported that Myanmar embassy officials denied that the two suspects had retracted their confessions as was earlier reported. They did, however, confirm that the suspects said they had been physically abused. If you can read Thai, here is the Post Today story:http://bit.ly/1qwov1y
Myanmar's president asks for "clean and fair" investigation
Myanmar's president has asked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to ensure a "clean and fair" investigation of the two Myanmar nationals charged with murdering two British tourists, an official said Friday.
His comments followed reports the accused alleged they were tortured into confessing – an allegation Thailand has strongly denied.
The high-profile murder case was discussed during talks Thursday in Nay Pyi Taw between President Thein Sein and the visiting Thai prime minister, who is making his first trip abroad since seizing power in a military coup on May 22.
The charges of murder and rape against the two Myanmar men – Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun – were filed last week after police said the undocumented migrant workers had confessed to killing British holidaymakers Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, on a dark Koh Tao beach in the early morning of Sept 15.
Reports in Myanmar and Thai media have said the accused, who are detained in neighbouring Koh Samui, told a lawyer they confessed to the crime after being tortured, prompting rights groups to demand a probe into their treatment.
"If they are guilty, action should be taken according to the law. However, the investigation needs to be clean and fair," Thein Sein said during talks with Prayut in Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday, according to a senior source at the president's office.
Here is information from this morning's story in the Bangkok Post.
Koh Tao suspect innocent, says dad
The father of a Myanmar worker charged with the murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao last month has pleaded for a chance to talk to his son.
U Tun Tun Hteik, who lives in Kapi village of Rakhine state's Kyaukphyu township, told Mizzima news agency in a phone interview that he and his wife did not believe their son, Win, was capable of murder.
He had learned of his son's arrest from people in the village who also worked on Koh Tao, and then later on TV.
Since then, his wife has been unable to eat or sleep, U Tun Tun Hteik said.
His wife never wanted Win to work in Thailand, he told the news agency, saying she worried that Win would be exploited.
The parents said they had no idea what to do as they had no money and did not know how they could travel to Yangon.
When asked if he thought his son would be released, U Tun Tun Hteik said: "I do not believe that my son would commit murder. I think he will be released if the investigation into this case is fair and systematic."
Meanwhile, on Wednesday lawyer Aung Myo Thant and Myanmar Association Thailand representative Kyaw Thaung were permitted by police on Koh Samui to question Maung Maung, a friend of the two suspect that police are holding as a witness. The interview took place in the presence of police.
Later, Aung Myo Thant told the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) online newspaper Thursday that Maung Maung said he drank beer and played guitar with Win and the second suspect, Zaw Rim, and then left the scene about 1am to see his girlfriend.
The two suspects remained at the scene, he said.
Maung Maung told the lawyer that when he returned home at 5am, he found the two suspects sleeping and nothing seemed suspicious.
An interpreter who took part in the interrogation may have been involved in torturing or beating the two suspects, Aung Myo Thant told DVB.
Thursday
The most-photographed pair in Thailand Tuesday were the two Myanmar murder suspects Zaw Rim and Win, both 21, after their court appearance in Surat Thani. Now, Myanmar media sources say the two have said their confessions were forced and they were not the killers. SUPAPONG CHAOLAN
Myanmar suspects 'recant confessions'
Post Reporters
Two migrant workers from Myanmar have reportedly recanted their confessions in the Koh Tao murder case, according to a local website quoting Myanmar's 7Day Daily newspaper.
According to the report, the pair told a lawyer from the Myanmar embassy they did not kill British tourists David Miller and Hannah Witheridge last month on Koh Tao in Surat Thani.
Attorney Aung Myo Thant from the Myanmar embassy made his comments after meeting with the two suspects, Zaw Rin and Win, who Thai police say confessed to the crime.
In Myanmar media reports, the lawyer said the two men told him they only confessed because they were forced to under torture. "They told me that they were on the beach that night drinking and singing songs," he said.
"They said they didn't do it, that the Thai police [along with their Myanmar-Thai translator] beat them until they confessed to something they didn't do. They're pleading with the Myanmar government to look into the case and find out the truth. They were a really pitiful sight. Their bodies had all sorts of bruises. I have already reported all that I have seen today to my government."
Amnesty International said Wednesday Thailand must ensure an independent investigation into mounting allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by police as it probes the murder of the two Britons.
The group spoke out one day after national police chief Somyot Poompanmuang held a press conference in Bangkok to quash allegations on social media that his officers had framed the suspects.
Following the arrests for the murders of Witheridge, 23, and Miller, 24, on Sept 15, a lawyer from the Myanmar embassy's legal team, who met the suspects, said one of the men alleged police beat and threatened him with electrocution.
"The Thai authorities must initiate an independent, effective and transparent investigation into mounting allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by police," said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme director.
According to reports, police beat Myanmar migrant workers questioned in connection with the murders, threatened them and poured boiling water over them.
Meanwhile, Phaibul Achawananthakhun, chief of Koh Samui prosecutors, said the 300-page police report was incomplete in terms of the suspects' confessions.
A high-profile police press conference was held in Bangkok yesterday today to refute claims the murder investigation was bungled. TAWATCHAI KHEMGUMNERD
Govt insists missions OK with probe
Koh Tao suspects claim police tortured them
POST REPORTERS
The government has insisted both the British and Myanmar embassies in Thailand "have no problems" with the Thai police's handling of the Sept 15 murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao even as police face claims the Myanmar suspects were tortured.
Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn said he was confident the case would not lead to any disputes between Thailand and Myanmar because he had spoken with the embassy and it did not have any problems with the investigation results.
His remarks came after the police held a press conference Tuesday to insist on the accuracy of the investigation which had resulted in charges against two Myanmar men.
Police General Jaramporn Suramani, right, gives details of the police investigation as National Police Chief Somyot Pumpanmuang looks on. TAWATCHAI KHEMGUMNERD
Police and diplomatic sources said that the British ambassador or a senior embassy official would attend the press conference. Instead, the embassy was not represented.
The bodies of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found on a beach of the southern island of Koh Tao in Surat Thani province on Sept 15.
Police pursued the case for more than two weeks before they detained three Myanmar migrant workers, two of whom were charged over the murders while the other was treated as an eyewitness.
National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang defended the arrest of the two Myanmar men for the murders even though the suspects claimed they were tortured by police while in custody.
"I must stress that all the officials involved in this case have done a good job," Pol Gen Somyot said.
He pointed to the five reasons why the police charged the suspects.
These were the accounts of the murders and rape provided by a Myanmar friend of the two suspects who was being treated as an eyewitness to the crime; the positive DNA matches between the samples taken from the two Myanmar suspects and those retrieved from Witheridge's body; the images of the suspects captured by closed-circuit security cameras; the mobile phone belonging to Miller which police retrieved from the suspects' living quarters; and the suspects' own alleged confessions to the murders and rape.
However, many inside and outside Thailand beg to differ.
"It seems to us like this case is a set-up and not based on hard facts," Aung Myo Thant, a lawyer appointed by the Myanmar embassy to defend 21-year-old suspects Zaw Rim and Win, told the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an independent Myanmar news website based in Norway.
In the interview with the DVB, which provided the suspects' full names which Thai police have yet to divulge, Aung Myo Thant said there were "inconsistencies with both the forensic report and evidence provided in the case".
Contradicting earlier reports that Myanmar embassy officials were satisfied with explanations provided by Thai authorities over the arrest of their nationals, Htun Aye, the embassy's second secretary, told the Bangkok Post Tuesday it was too early to say whether his team was satisfied with all the information they were given by authorities.
Public prosecutors have decided to set up a committee to examine the case following the charges against the two suspects of premeditated murder, rape, physical assault and theft.
"The prosecutors do not feel pressured by speculation that the suspects are actually scapegoats because the prosecutors will base their decisions on the police investigation report which will include witness accounts and items of evidence," said Santhanee Disayabutr, deputy spokesperson of the Office of the Attorney-General.
Here is more from Bangkok Post reporter Achara Ashayagachat:
Two Myanmar suspects charged with the premeditated murder of two British tourists on Surat Thani's Koh Tao on Sept 15 have told Myanmar embassy officials they were physically assaulted prior to their confession, the embassy says.
The five-member Myanmar delegation led by U Tun Aye, in charge of consular affairs, met a police investigation team in Surat Thani.
They also met suspects Win and Zaw Rim, both aged 21, and talked to correctional officials on Monday.
Another Myanmar delegate, U Moewai, said the embassy team had been told by the two Myanmar suspects that they had been tortured while they underwent interrogation.
U Moewai said the two also told him they did not know who abused them, though they thought policemen could be responsible.
For our previous coverage which pretty much follows the case from the beginning, look here:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/434177/koh-tao-murders-frustration-grows
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/433605/koh-tao-murders-still-big-news
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/432493/tourists-murdered-on-koh-tao
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