Hundreds of residents of a Thai resort island angrily protested the killing of a British tourist, with some waving wooden clubs as police escorted the two Thai suspects back to the scene of the crime yesterday.
Besieged by protesters, police were forced to cancel a planned re-enactment of the murder of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old student from Wales, whose battered body was found the morning of Jan. 2 by a jet skier in the Gulf of Thailand.
Two Thai fisherman confessed on Monday to killing Horton, who was vacationing on the island of Koh Samui, and DNA tests indicate the suspects raped the victim, police said.
Under questioning, the fishermen told police they spotted Horton while she was walking alone on a beach talking on her cellphone.
One of the men, Bualoi Posit, 23, told police he grabbed Horton's arms, while the other man, Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, confessed to hitting her several times with a stick before they raped her and then threw her body into the sea, police said.
Shocking brutality
The brutality of the crime has shocked this Southeast Asian nation, which makes billions of dollars a year from its tourism industry.
National police spokesman Lieutenant-General Ayiravid Subarnbhesaj said that residents and shop owners on Koh Samui "hate the suspects for causing severe damage to the reputation of the country."
Police had initially planned to re-enact the crime on Monday but were thwarted by a crowd of hundreds.
Some protesters broke through a police barrier and began punching the suspects, said Ayiravid. A similar scene greeted police yesterday morning.
"We had to cancel plans to re-enact the crime for fear of violence," he said.
Police want to stage a run-through of the crime to back up the suspects' confessions.
Police said that despite the DNA findings, Wichai denies having raped the victim.
If convicted of murder, the two men could face the death penalty.
Damage to tourism
The arrests on Monday followed an unusual public appeal last week by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to find the killers, saying that the slaying hurt the country's image and could damage its tourism industry, already suffering a downturn from last year's tsunami and the bird flu scare.
"I feel somewhat relieved that police have made the arrests," Thaksin told reporters yesterday, calling for stern punishment if the men are found guilty.
"I hope the family [of Horton] feels a little better, because we are doing our best," Thaksin said.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
The Vatican Museums on Thursday unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace that in some ways rival the Sistine Chapel as the peak of high Renaissance artistry. A decade-long project to clean and restore the largest of the four Raphael Rooms uncovered a novel mural painting technique that Renaissance painter and architect Raphael began, but never completed. He used oil paint directly on the wall, and arranged a grid of nails embedded in the walls to hold in place the resin surface onto which he painted. Vatican Museums officials