Verdict Expected By Christmas In Trial Of Murdered Channel Islander

A Thai judge will announce a verdict in the trial of two Myanmar migrant workers accused of killing two British tourists at the end of the year, a defence lawyer said today, following a trial that has been mired in controversy.

Allegations of police torture are not new in Thailand but defence lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat gave extensive details about the alleged intimidation, physical violence and threats his clients faced in an interview with the Associated Press.

The court gave the prosecution and the defence 15 days to submit their closing statements by October 26.

“Police told me that as I had no passport I had no rights, and they told me it had happened before, where Burmese migrant workers were burned in a circle of blazing tyres on Koh Tao island”, Wei Phyo said in court.

The trial, which started in July, ended this weekend with the men alleging they were tortured and sexually assaulted to make false confessions.

Last month, a Thai forensic expert said DNA samples taken from the alleged murder weapon, a garden hoe, did not belong to the two defendants.

Miss Witheridge was raped, and Mr Miller died after being hit across the head before drowning. They later recanted their confessions.

Both men claimed they were beaten repeatedly and Zaw Lin says he passed out after being suffocated. He said interrogators told him Myanmar migrants who didn’t cooperate had been killed before.

Police linked Win Zaw Htun to the murders because of a phone that was found in the shrubs behind his room.

He said he picked it out of the sand a few distance from the murder scene and took it home but he could not open it as it was locked with a passcode. “My friend smashed up the phone and threw it into the undergrowth behind our hut”, he said.

The 22-year-old said he was struck in the chest by a police officer, but also punched by the translator after he was asked questions about his religion and his ethnicity.

He also said he was instructed how to perform in a crime “re-enactment” staged by police soon after their arrest.

Lin also claimed the same instructor threatened to kill him if he didn’t follow strict police guidelines at re-enactments of the crime on the beach in Koh Tao past year.

Lead lawyer for the defense, Nakhon Chomphupat, told Khaosod English his clients are optimistic about the outcome and put their faith in the court’s justice.

“The man said I was young, and I could just say I did it and just go to prison for several years”.

Mr Hall said: “They were told that if they did not confess they would simply disappear – they would be set on fire or their limbs would be cut off and sunk at sea so nobody would ever find them”.

The case has attracted fierce criticism from the families and British authorities who accuse Thai police of failing to secure the crime scene and of their handling of the case, especially the fact the bodies were moved before a forensics team examined them.