The son of a Koh Tao village headman once assumed to be a suspect in the Koh Tao double murders will submit to a public DNA test Wednesday to quash persistent rumours about his involvement in the case.
Warot Tuwichian, 22, will appear with his father, Woraphan, at the Bangkok press conference with national police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang and other concerned authorities.
Mr Woraphan flew from Surat Thani to Bangkok on Tuesday and will meet Pol Gen Somyot at the Royal Thai Police Office at the police chief’s invitation.
Mr Woraphan said Pol Gen Somyot wanted to talk to him about the killing of two Britons and the reports and rumours that emerged in the investigation’s early days that Mr Woraphan, owner of the AC Bar where backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were last seen, and his two sons were involved in their deaths.
Mr Woraphan’s younger brother, Montriwat Tuwichian, 45, manages the bar. Warot reportedly is a university student in Bangkok and produced CCTV images proving he was in the capital at the time of the killings. But he never submitted to a DNA test.
Even after two Myanmar men were arrested for the Sept 15 slayings, sceptics on social media continued to claim the jailed suspects were really scapegoats for Mr Woraphan’s family.
“I want to ask that who will responsible for the reports on social media that accused my son and my family and brought disgrace upon our family,” Mr Woraphan said. “When the case ends, I’ll let it be the police’s duty to take legal action against them.”
Mr Woraphan added that he was willing to help the police in the case.
To that end, his son’s DNA test will be taken in front of the media to “prove his innocence,” Mr Woraphan said.