By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Two young Myanmar migrant workers have gone on trial in southern Thailand on charges of murdering two British tourists, with controversial forensic evidence central to the prosecution's case.
Suspected manipulation of DNA samples by the Thai police has been key to the murder investigation, which has been criticized by migrant worker associations and human rights groups.
Migrant rights activist Andy Hall - who is attending the trial as an assistant to the defense lawyers’ team - wrote on his Twitter account Wednesday that the court had summonsed the police forensic investigator to appear Thursday "to enquire about the state of forensic materials.”
“Once forensic experts have been questioned, the court will rule on the defense team’s request for forensic re-examination,” he added.
British tourists David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were found bludgeoned to death on a tourist beach on Koh Tao, in southern Thailand, on Sept. 15 last year.
Witheridge had been raped before her murder.
With no arrests in the first few weeks of their investigation, police undertook blanket DNA testing across the island focussing particularly on migrant workers.
In October, they arrested Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, two 21-year-old migrants, and said they had confessed to the crime.
But when met by human rights workers a few days later, the two young men claimed that they had been tortured and forced to confess. They and retracted their confessions.
During Wednesday's hearing at Koh Samui criminal court, Lin and Zaw Htun's defense team told the judge that there were discrepancies between DNA testing by Thai police and that done by a team of police officers from the United Kingdom.
Scotland Yard officers had joined the investigation after British Prime Minister David Cameron had expressed concern to Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The defense team asked the judge to authorize an independent test of the forensic evidence against their clients.
Human rights activists have underlined the prejudices they say the case illustrates against migrant workers, who make up the bulk of the workforce in the resorts of southern Thailand.
Most of them are undocumented and, according to activists, easy prey for extortion by local officials.
“Understanding powerlessness and vulnerability of migrants across Thailand, when combined with widespread criticism of this murder investigation and allegations of powerful actors influencing development continues to produce deep distrust and suspicion that the real people responsible for the killings have yet to be apprehended,” Hall wrote in a column published in Monday’s Bangkok Post.
The parents of both British victims attended Wednesday's hearing.
“Just hours before he died, David was talking to us with his usual enthusiasm, describing the beauty of Koh Tao and the friendliness of the Thai people,” said Miller’s family in a statement Wednesday.
Witheridge’s parents added “Hannah was a beautiful person, inside and out, she brought a room alive by just being there. Her bright future was brutally ended leaving those who loved her broken with no answers.”
The verdict is due in October.
