Thai prosecutors have continued efforts to delay their filing of a rebuttal to an appeal submitted by the legal team of two Burmese defendants in a high-profile, trans-national murder case that has dragged on for more than three years.

A legal adviser at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok told DVB that the prosecution team had requested yet another extension – this time until 23 January 2018.

It will take at least two weeks for Thailand’s Supreme Court to decide whether to accept the appeal against the death sentences handed down to two Burmese nationals convicted of the September 2014 murders of two British backpackers on Koh Tao island.

Two men from Burma convicted of killing two British backpackers on a Thai holiday island in 2014 submitted their final appeal on Monday against the death sentence.

A Burmese legal team has compiled a document outlining what it says was Thai investigators’ mishandling of evidence in the case of a 2014 double murder on the resort island of Koh Tao that was pinned on two Burmese migrant workers now facing death row.

Burmese nationals Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, on death row in a Thai prison for the murder of two British tourists, were denied Burmese translation services when officials read out a court ruling rejecting their appeal on 23 February, according to a member of the Burmese delegation assisting the pair.