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Thai police claim first suspect they arrested is Bangkok shrine bomber Thai police say first arrested suspect is the Bangkok bomber
(about 3 hours later)
Thai police on Saturday said a foreigner held in custody over last month’s deadly Bangkok attack was the same yellow-shirted man seen on CCTV placing a rucksack at the shrine moments before the blast. Thai police claim the first person they arrested in the investigation into the Bangkok bombing is the same man who planted explosives that ripped through rush-hour traffic in August, killing 20 people.
Related: Bangkok bomb: police say man arrested unlikely to be main suspectRelated: Bangkok bomb: police say man arrested unlikely to be main suspect
Authorities have earlier said it was unlikely that either of the two men detained over the 17 August blast, which left 20 dead, were the bomber in what has been an often confusing and contradictory police investigation. Adem Karadag, 28, was arrested last month in outer Bangkok after police said they found stacks of fake passports and bomb-making materials in his apartment. Authorities at the time released a photo of the man’s passport, which appeared to be badly made, showing him to be a Turkish citizen.
On Saturday national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said the investigators now claimed the first arrested suspect, a man police identified as Adem Karadag whose nationality remains unconfirmed, was the bomber. “He accepted the crime,” police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri told reporters. “All the information we have leads back to him,” he said. Karadag is suspect of being the man in a yellow T-shirt who was captured on grainy security camera footage placing a black backpack by a bench on 17 August, moments before the blast.
Prawut alleged he placed the bomb at the shrine then called a motorbike taxi and changed his shirt at a restroom in nearby Lumpini Park. Prawut said Karadag then sped away on a motorbike before changing his clothes at a toilet in Bangkok’s Lumpini park. He faces eight charges, including premeditated murder.
Karadag’s lawyer – who says his client’s real name is Bilal Mohammed – could not immediately be reached for comment but earlier this week had cast doubt on rumours of his confession to the crime and has said his client was not in the country at the time of the attack. On Saturday, police were due to escort Karadag on a public reenactment of the bombing at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok’s central Chidlom district.
The suspect now faces up to eight charges including premeditated murder, Prawut said. Thai police "bomb squad" sweep Erawan shrine ahead of main suspect reenactment pic.twitter.com/KgKabbX3ha
Karadag is due to undergo a reenactment of his alleged role in the crime – a standard Thai police procedure – starting at the shrine. Karadag’s lawyer, Chuchart Kanphai, has previously said his client was born in China but moved to Turkey in 2004. He entered Thailand on 21 August, four days after the bomb blast, the lawyer has said.
The unprecedented attack in the heart of Bangkok’s bustling downtown district last month stunned the nation and dealt a fresh blow to Thailand’s reputation as a tourist haven. He says his client’s full name is Bilal Mohammed although Thai authorities still refer to him as Karadag.
Public re-enactments are common in Thai police investigations although they have been condemned as suggesting the suspect’s criminality and also putting those accused at risk of attack from angry members of the public.
Thai police have also been criticised for releasing confusing and contradictory statements throughout the investigation and for awarding themselves 3m baht (about £55,000 or $84,000), for making an arrests.
Another arrested suspect, Yusufu Mierili, is accused of handing the explosives to Karadag at a train station. Police also conducted a public re-enactment with Mierili earlier this month at Hua Lamphong train station.
Related: Thai police pay themselves £55,000 reward for bombing arrestRelated: Thai police pay themselves £55,000 reward for bombing arrest
The majority of the blast’s fatalities were Chinese visitors, who believed prayers at the shrine brought good fortune. More than 100 other people were left injured. More than 120 people were wounded in the blast, the worst peacetime bombing in Thai history.
The motive for the bombing remains unclear but this month Thailand’s police chief linked the attack to China’s Uighur minority for the first time, after weeks of speculation over their role. The government feared it would damage the country’s reputation as a tourist haven. Dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma, the Erawan shrine is also popular among Buddhists, and receives thousands of Chinese tourists a year. Many of the fatalities were Chinese nationals.
Somyot Poompanmoung blamed the blast on a gang of people-smugglers motivated by revenge for a crackdown on their lucrative trade including the transfer of Uighurs. The shrine sits on a corner of a central Bangkok intersection, near suit tailors, five-star hotels and restaurants.
That motive has been widely dismissed by security experts who instead have pointed to Thailand’s forced deportation of 109 Uighurs to China in July, a move that ignited anger in Turkey where nationalist hardliners see the minority as part of a global Turkic-speaking family. Thai police have said the attack was not politically motivated and blamed a criminal gang that trafficked Uighur Muslims from China to Turkey. They said the group carried it out in retaliation for a crackdown on their trade.
Mostly Muslim Uighurs have long accused Beijing of religious and cultural repression in China’s far western Xinjiang region, with hundreds of refugees believed to have fled in recent years, often heading to Turkey via south-east Asia. Many Uighurs, an ethnic minority in western China who have suffered persecution and abuse, have fled to Thailand in the hope of travelling on to Turkey, which has strong cultural links to the group and has sheltered them for decades. They have been prevented from travelling directly from China.
In July, Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China, causing an international outcry and anger among the Uighur community.
Related: Thai police say Uighur trafficking ring behind Bangkok bombingRelated: Thai police say Uighur trafficking ring behind Bangkok bombing
Thai police arrested Karadag in a flat on the outskirts of Bangkok late last month saying he was in possession of bomb-making equipment and dozens of fake Turkish passports. Observers speculated that the bombing may have been carried out by a Uighur political group, given the high number of Chinese deaths. Karadag’s lawyer says his client was born in Xinjiang, the Chinese province where Uighurs are from.
The other man is custody has been identified as Yusufu Mieraili, who was seized with a Chinese passport that police believe is real. It notes Xinjiang as his birthplace. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Karadag’s lawyer Chuchart Kanphai has previously said his client was born in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, but moved to Turkey in 2004 where he received Turkish nationality and found work as a truck driver with his brother.
He entered Thailand on 21 August, four days after the bomb blast, with the aim of finding work in Malaysia, the lawyer has said.