Harris Binotti from Dumfries is charged with killing Gary Ferguson, who was found dead in Yangon last November

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Interpol has issued a red notice for a Scottish teacher wanted by police over the suspected murder of a colleague in Myanmar.

Harris Binotti, 26, fled the south-east Asian country in November last year, hours before Gary Ferguson was found dead.

Binotti, from Dumfries, has been at the centre of an international manhunt since Ferguson was found with fatal head and chest wounds five months ago.

The Interpol notice, which gives the teacher’s full name as Harris John Italo Binotti, says he is wanted on a charge of murder. It describes him as having brown hair and blue eyes and measuring about 1.68 metres (5ft 5in).

Red notices are issued to international police forces when the suspect is wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence based on an arrest warrant or court decision.

Ferguson and Binotti are believed to have gone out drinking two nights before neighbours reported hearing sounds of a fight and the victim’s body was discovered.

Both men taught English at the Horizon International school in Yangon.

Ferguson, who had a four-year-old son, had worked there for a year, and Binotti three months.

Ferguson’s brother Martin said the family were relieved the red notice had finally been issued.

He wrote on his Facebook page: “After such a hard and long fight, I am in tears to announce that Binotti has finally been put on the Interpol list of wanted persons. He can now be arrested internationally.”

Ferguson’s family had previously complained that the search was going “agonisingly slowly” and that “we expect a little more from the British government to get this here on the rails”.