Two men arrested over the murder of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and James Miller in Thailand in September could be charged at a court appearance on Tuesday, reports from Thailand suggest.
Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both 21-year-old Burmese migrant workers on the holiday island of Koh Tao, were detained a fortnight after the double killing, and police said they confessed to the crime. However, the pair quickly rescinded the confessions, complaining that they had been obtained by torture.
Prosecutors have sent back the police file several times asking officers to clear up inconsistencies. Under Thai law suspects can be detained for a maximum of 84 days without charge, meaning Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo must be charged or released by Christmas.
According to a report on the TNews website, prosecutors believe their case is now complete and they should be able to present it on Tuesday when the suspects are due in court on the larger adjoining island of Koh Samui for a regular custody hearing.
The regional head prosecutor, Thawatchai Siangjaew, reportedly said the combined evidence, including witnesses and DNA, was strong enough for the prosecution to begin.
Thai police say Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, was raped before being fatally struck about the head with an agricultural hoe. Miller, 24, also suffered head injuries before being left to drown in shallow water on the beach in Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand popular with young tourists.
Rights groups including Amnesty International have expressed concerns about the police investigation, citing apparent gaps in the evidence and the Thai authorities’ previous record of wrongly blaming Burmese nationals for high-profile crimes.
As well as the retracted confessions, police say they have DNA evidence tying the men to the scene. However, there are doubts about these samples.
Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo have said they were drinking and playing guitar on the beach on the night of 14-15 September, when the murders took place, and had no idea anything had happened until the next day. Their supporters point out that they remained on Koh Tao, continuing with their jobs in local bars, for more than a fortnight after the killings rather than trying to flee.
At their last custody hearing, on 20 November, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo passed the Guardian a handwritten letter via their lawyers in which they insisted on their innocence and asked the victims’ families to assist their case. Expressing condolences, the letter said the killing was “nothing to do with us” and asked for the families to share with the men’s lawyers any information they had on the case.
Following pressure from the British government, Thailand allowed Metropolitan police detectives to travel to the country to review the investigation. The report on what the British police found has yet to be completed.
