Myanmar migrants recant confessions on murder of Britons in Thai South

SURAT THANI, THAILAND, October 22 (TNA) - Two Myanmar migrants, who have been arrested and detained for being suspected of killing two British tourists on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand off Surat Thani Province in the Thai South last month, have recanted their confessions. Their lawyer, therefore, filed a letter of both suspects recanting their confessions to public prosecutors of Surat Thani's Koh Samui District on Tuesday. The lawyer quoted the two Myanmar suspects as claiming that an interpreter had kicked them until they agreed to confess. However, Thai police interrogators insisted that they have had solid evidence to prosecute both of the Myanmar suspects despite their about-turn. Meanwhile, the parents of the two Myanmar detainees, Zaw Lin and Win, arrived in Thailand on Wednesday morning to visit their sons at the Koh Samui Prison. Myanmar labour protection and Myanmar Embassy officials in Bangkok received the suspects' parents at Don Mueang Airport and would later bring them to the Koh Samui Prison. The mother of one of the Myanmar suspects told reporters in tears that she arrived to see her son and seek justice because she thought her son was not a murderer. Ambassadors of eight European countries in Bangkok, including Italy, France, Britain, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Czech and Spain were, in the meantime, meeting with representatives of three reporters' associations and the National Press Council of Thailand to discuss local media's responsibilities for their reports on the Koh Tao murder case. (TNA)