ARAKAN INDOBHASA

Two Burmese men accused of murdering a pair of young British tourists in Thailand only confessed to the killings after police threatened to douse them in petrol and set them alight, or dismember them and dump their bodies in a river, according to the father of one of the suspects.

Htun Htun Htike, the father of Win Zaw Htun, said his son and the co-accused, Zaw Lin, told him they were tortured by police and a translator, as well as threatened, after being arrested over the deaths of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on the popular holiday island of Koh Tao.

The Burmese men, both 21, have complained of physical mistreatment by police, and have officially retracted the confessions they made, according to their lawyers. The Foreign Office in London has called in a Thai diplomat to express concerns at the investigation amid concerns that police in Thailand might have sought an easy solution to the crime to avoid harming the country’s economically vital tourism industry.

A team of British officers has since been sent to Thailand to liaise with their local counterparts.

But the comments by Htun Htun Htike, in an interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Thai-based news service run by Burmese exiles, contains new and serious allegations from the pair. He reiterated that his son and Zaw Lin had not killed Witheridge and Miller or raped the former, and had only confessed after interrogators said they would kill them.

“My son and his friend told me they were subjected to physical torture by the Thai police and their translator,” Htun Htun Htike said. “The interrogators told them to confess to the crime, and threatened to cut off their limbs, put them in a bag, and dump them in a river if they did not.

“The police also threatened to tie the two boys to a tyre, pour petrol on it, and set it alight. My son said they were terrified and confessed. But now that we [their parents and Burmese officials] are present, they can speak the truth – that they did not commit the murder. My son also told me that the police threatened to use Tasers on them.”

According to Thai police the Burmese men found Witheridge, 23, and Miller, 24, embracing on a beach. Police claim that the accused struck Miller on the head, leaving him to drown in the surf, before raping and killing Witheridge. Postmortems showed Witheridge died from head injuries, while Miller died from blows to the head and drowning.

Several human rights groups which work with Burmese migrants in Thailand have expressed alarm at the men’s claims of torture, saying Burmese nationals can sometimes be used as scapegoats for crimes. Thai police say the case against the men is fair, denying any mistreatment, and say there is also forensic evidence linking them to the killings.

The British police team was sent to Thailand after David Cameron obtained agreement from the Thai prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, a week ago during a summit in Italy.

A Foreign Office statement said the three officers – homicide detectives from the Metropolitan and Norfolk forces, and a forensic coordinator from the Met – arrived in Thailand on Monday, and would travel to Koh Tao. It said: “Their remit is to meet their Thai counterparts and ‘gain a better understanding of the investigation’. They may offer additional assistance if requested by the Thai authorities.”

Earlier this month the junior Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire summoned the Thai chargé d’affaires to the UK, Nadhavathna Krishnamra, to hear British concerns about the investigation.