Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon on Saturday denied that British police would have any direct involvement in an investigation into the murder of two Britons on Koh Tao.
May Thein, the mother of Win Zaw Htun, one of the two Koh Tao murder suspects, shows her son's picture at a monastery near Yangon. Relatives are planning to travel to Thailand to meet the two men. (Reuters photo)
Gen Prawit, who is also the defence minister, made clear the Thai position that British authorities would be in Thailand as observers only. Their visit was intended to ensure the confidence of the European country in the handling of the case by Thai police, he added.
British detectives would not interfere with the investigation of the case, said the deputy premier, who is in charge of security affairs including the police force.
But a statement from the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron offered a different version.
It said British police experts would travel to the holiday island of Koh Tao to help investigate the murder of Britons Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, according to Reuters.
The agreement was reached after Mr Cameron raised the issue with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, the statement said.
It did not provide further details on how many officials would travel to Thailand or what kind of assistance they would provide.
"What the prime minister secured ... was agreement from the Thai prime minister that we can send some British police investigators to Koh Tao to work with the Royal Thai Police on this," a British diplomatic source said.
Myanmar migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were charged with killing the two backpackers on Sept 15. Witheridge was also raped.
National police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpanmuang echoed the comments of Gen Prawit, saying Thai law did not allow police from other countries to conduct investigations in the kingdom. This was common policy in all countries, he added.
The best thing that British police could do was to raise any points of concern they may have and ask their Thai counterparts to look into them, he said.
Gen Prayut said on Saturday after returning from Italy that his British counterpart had asked him to prevent another tragedy like the Koh Tao murders because Britons still love to visit Thailand.
"I sat near the president of Switzerland and the prime minister of Britain," he told reporters at Suvarnabhumi Airport. "The British prime minister asked me to take care of the Koh Tao case.
"Twenty questions were posed. I was able to answer all of them and the British prime minister was satisfied. He said it must not recur as Britons liked to visit Thailand."
The British prime minister said he had no problems with the justice system in Thailand but that Britons who had been following media reports had questions, Gen Prayut said. He said he assured his British counterpart that Thai authorities were taking action in line with the law.
The Thai police investigation of the killings has been widely criticised and most people believe the real culprits are still at large.
British authorities say their two main areas of concern are verification of the DNA samples claimed to have come from the suspects, and allegations that they were tortured into confessing.
"They will deploy observers. Today there are those from the embassy and the police," Gen Prayut said.