Junta chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha Tuesday said the case against a pair of Myanmar suspects in the murder of two British tourists was “reliable” and an internal issue for the kingdom in an apparent rebuke of a British offer to help.
The comments by the tough-talking former army chief, Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who is also prime minister, came after Britain offered to help with the police investigation, amid deepening concerns over the handling of the probe.
“They do not have any more doubts about the investigation,” Prayuth said in the Bangkok Post.
He suggested their concerns may stem from how quickly and effectively Thai investigators cracked the case.
“They simply needed more time to understand it all because we managed to arrest suspects swiftly even though it seemed impossible at the beginning,” he added.
State-run MCOT reports Prayuth denied the British Foreign Office annoucement it had summoned a Thai diplomat in London, however now it seems it was the characterization he rejected, referring it to as a “clarification.”
Thai police have charged two migrant workers from Myanmar with the murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, after the tourists’ battered bodies were found on the southern island of Koh Tao on Sept. 15.
But unease over the case has deepened because of reports their confessions were forced under tortured – an allegation Thailand has strongly denied.
“I consider Koh Tao case to be reliable,” Prayut told reporters, adding there were several pieces of evidence to charge the migrant workers.
“Anyone can come to Thailand, but don’t forget that what is our issue, is our issue,” he said of British offer of help. “We managed to arrest suspects swiftly even though it seemed impossible at the beginning,” he said.
The arrests followed intense scrutiny of Thai authorities, which had been accused – in criticism at home and abroad – of bungling the investigation in the days after the crime.
On Tuesday Britain’s ambassador in Thailand, Mark Kent, met Thai and Myanmar officials in Bangkok for three hours to discuss the investigation.
A day earlier, Thailand’s top diplomat in London was summoned to hear the UK stress its “real concern” about the handling of the case, which has further dented Thailand’s already battered reputation as a tourist paradise.
In a statement junior foreign minister Hugo Swire “reiterated that the UK police stood ready to assist with the investigation and subsequent legal process,” and offer repeated Tuesday by Kent.
Tuesday afternoon Prayuth rejected the offers, saying it was Thailand’s business.
Thai police have said the two Myanmar suspects confessed to the crime and their DNA matched samples taken from Witheridge’s body.
Myanmar has also raised fears over the treatment of its nationals. “We hope Thai authorities will act with balance and accuracy to prosecute the offenders according to the law and not take action wrongly against those who didn’t commit the crime,” an official from the Myanmar president’s office in Naypyidaw told AFP.
The grisly murders on the normally tranquil Thai island delivered a fresh blow to the kingdom’s image as a tourist haven after months of political protests that ended in May’s army coup.
Story: AFP / Photo: Thai PBS
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