Parents of murder Myanmar suspects ask for justice

SURAT THANI, THAILAND, October 24 (TNA) - The parents of two Myanmar migrants, 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 asked for justice, insisting that their sons are innocent but were forced to admit the murder. Accompanied by the chairman of Myanmar's Arakan law network, the parents of the two Myanmar migrant workers, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, who had traveled from Myanmar earlier this week, visited their sons at Koh Samui Prison in Surat Thani on Friday. Upon arriving at the prison, Win Zaw Htun's parents wept and told journalists that they had decided to visit their son to boost his morale and to urge him to speak the truth, while they remain confident in the Thai judicial process. The parents of the two suspects later submitted a letter to public prosecutors on Koh Samui, requesting for justice for their sons. In return, the local public prosecutors assured them that fair and justice will be given to every party. The bodies of the two British tourists, 23-year-old Hannah Victoria Witheridge and 24-year-old David William Miller, were found on a beach of Koh Tao, a neighbouring resort island of Koh Samui, early on September 15. Both were brutally murdered, while the female victim was also raped. In another brutal murder case, local police on Friday brought a man and a woman suspected of killing a 79-year-old Japanese man last month, for a re-enactment at three spots in Bangkok’s neighbouring Samut Prakan Province amid tight security. The suspects were Pornchanok Chaiyapa and Somchai Kaewbangyang, the man she lived with and had a daughter before marrying the Japanese victim, identified as Yoshinori Shimato, in 2002. The two suspects have already confessed to the crime, in which the body of the Japanese teacher was chopped at the female suspect’s house in Samut Prakan and dumped his dismembered body, contained in four sacks, into a canal on September 21. Police have charged the two suspects of premeditated murder, unlawful detention and concealment of the victim's body. (TNA)