Many years ago when I first came to live in Thailand, I thought something was 'lost in translation' when news reports such as this were aired; only later, upon learning to read and write Thai, did I discover that it is not only common, but almost mandatory, for government officials to make these risible predictions.

One has to say though that their performance in this present case has set a new gold standard for dim-witted, headless-chicken absurdity. How the poor parents and relations and friends of the victims must feel in the face of such staggering incompetence, one can scarcely imagine.

The BBC should get involved with this considering it was their citizens murdered.. Do a complete investigation and uncover the truth for the families. Even if they never get brought to justice at least the the world will know who was responsible.

Are they 85% certain of this?

Possibly 84%.

After a 3 week investigation it will take another 3 days to issue an arrest warrant. How inept is this investigation ???

Shut up!!

Enough with meaningless pressconferences, report back when you have the killers!!

ABSOLUTELY AGREE! Blathering rabbiting idiots, addicted to the sight of their names in the newspapers. Shut up & tell us when it is all done & dusted with real evidence. That way you won't have to fabricate another contradictory announcement in 3 days.

Sean may be the key to this case, he was v close to the action that night and posted very openly on his Facebook that the owner of AC Bar did it … no smoke without fire as they say

Exactly, Sean is the only witness. Who in the right mind would speak the words he did if they weren't true.

We all here know, the Keepers son fled to Bangkok, has witnesses saying he was in Bangkok at the time because he had 10 days to round them up and fabricate evidence,,,, like change the date on a surveillance camera, teacher's word etc. He and his father both have telephones I'm sure with all the money he is said to poses so why didn't he surface a few hours after it was pronounced he was a suspect, Duu. All police have done since that time has been COVER-UP.

GET DNA FROM THE KEEP'S KID.

I'm sure the BIB will have some fictitious DNA on hand by now to cover up for the real killers.

The Thai people need an outside police force in on this.

This shit needs to stop, for the good of Thailand and it's people.

Like everywhere, a fraction of a % have all the power and money and the rest the spoils of there greed.

More rubbish. If they had a real suspect he would be locked up and paraded by the press like a Muppet. 3 days must be allotted to sort out a fit up. Perhaps their 'witness' in this case will play along. U like the honest guy in yesterday's news.

Let's give the murderer a 2-3 days heads up before the arrest warrant goes out for him.. Excellent police work... Words can't describe the incompetence ....

Have they found someone to give false evidence in exchange for money?

It's not at all uncommon throughout this whole region for not only witnesses to be bought, but also a paid patsy to be found who is willing to "confess" to a crime he did not commit in exchange for a suitable consideration to take care of his dependents.

I believe that this is the most likely scenario for a "successful" outcome to this charade of an investigation........

3 days is enough time for the key players to do runners as they will have already been tipped off by the cops

Does anyone get the impression that the real culprits don't have to run anywhere! At this stage without intervention from the PM they have got away with it.

And by this statement they give the murderer 3 days to make his escape from Thailand, at least now the world know the IQ level on the BIB's

Hmmmm.... Why does face not come into play into this situation???

Oh silly me, face only comes into play when it suits them.......carry on!!!

So in three days time when they are back o square one, "oh we lied about the whole thing and suspect the neighbours dog as it matches all of the 3 samples we found, because we'd lose face "

I'm sorry, what did you say?

Another brilliant move.............give the [possible] murderer/rapist a few days notice to run!!!

Right. If police in my country have enough evidence to warrant an arrest they aren't going to advertise this and wait three days.

Seems a bit sketchy to me.

Hope I'm wrong.

Arrest warrant for Koh Tao murder suspect to be Issued in 3 days

Yeah, as soon as they beat convince a witness to take a bribe come forward and name the perpetrators that killed the two Brits...

I just got an idea for a new TV hit show. CSI Thailand. Wow what a story line. Would make the US series look like such a farce.

We can get all the story lines out of Thai newspapers. Even filming the pilot would be so much fun we could hire real cops and real crims they are such great script writers. The endings are going to be tough though .....to be continued next week.

Why wait 3 more days?

Another brilliant move.............give the [possible] murderer/rapist a few days notice to run!!!

you cynical thing,,,, next you will be suggesting that it is a prominent wealthy figure and 3 days gives them enough time to plan leaving the country and fly somewhere with no extradition treaty.

Surely this could never, ever happen!

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Why wait 3 more days?

Cos they don't have a clue who the killer is?

Or he payed them off already and have 3 days to escape.

Migrant workers, earning what 150 200 Bt per day? at a bar tourist bar what were they doing sweeping the floor?

Have they found someone to give false evidence in exchange for money?

It's not at all uncommon throughout this whole region for not only witnesses to be bought, but also a paid patsy to be found who is willing to "confess" to a crime he did not commit in exchange for a suitable consideration to take care of his dependents.

I believe that this is the most likely scenario for a "successful" outcome to this charade of an investigation........

The death penalty seems in order for this gruesome double murder. I don't see anyone willingly accepting money to take the all for this. Unless of course, they admit to the murder and get a like sentence, which could get shortened considerably.

Why are there no farang witnesses who were in AC Bar at the time ?

because they wouldn't go along with whatever scheme the keystone cops have hatched?

Thainess in police work. I never thought it possible. I was wrong.

This type of "positive" announcement is the normal way of Thai officials saying what they think people want to hear. They do it all the time. They don't actually mean anything, it's just their way of making it seem li like everything is going well. The time frames used are always far enough ahead to seem reasonably close, but also not so close that immediate action is necessary.

Of course, they don't realise that to Westerners the content of the announcement is simply absurd.

Just ignore them, they are meaningless.

The suspense is really getting to me

Yes . . .everything this police officer says, is meaningless, Buddha might help him to gain substance, otherwise there will never be Nirvana for him because he is too meaningless.

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Why are there no farang witnesses who were in AC Bar at the time ?

What do you think. I think finally they have a scape goat.

I would think the families of the victims should stop in and ask the British authority to do a independent investigation to ensure the real corporates are cut and not and give appropriate penalties (death sentence)

...culprits are caught...

Is it just me, or does this case show the so called "Thainess" at it's ugliest? Xenophobia, a blame it on the victims attitude, and complete incompetence of law enforcement agencies, all come together. To top this up, one must hear the now famous bikini speech of our leader, and the cynical and difficult to beat "let them wear tracking devices" idea of the tourist minister. The only way to bring Thailand to it's senses, would be a complete boycott by tourists planning to visit.

Make that a looooong boycott

...the employees of one of the accused.....???

Spring News are saying that the three ppl work at AC Bar.

"We know who you are, really, and you have 3 days to surrender before we come after you. Seriously. Surrender. Please. You have no idea how much we'd appreciate that. But we know who you are, so why don't you surrender? Nothing to lose now. Because we already know. Scout's honor!"

3 points for trying, Mr Policeman.