Thailand indicts 2 Uygur men for deadly Bangkok shrine bombing

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continues from : Explosion Kills 20 at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine

Thailand indicts 2 Uygur men for deadly Bangkok shrine bombing that killed 20 people
Tuesday, 24 November, 2015


Police officers escort suspects Bilal Mohammad, front, and Mieraili Yusufu, rear, as they arrive at a military court in Bangkok.
Photo: AP
Photo: ReutersPolice believe Bilal is this man who was seen at Erawan shrine before the blast.
Photo: Reuters

Security camera footage from the Erawan Shrine showed a man wearing a yellow T-shirt who sat down on a bench at the outdoor shrine, took off a black backpack and then left it behind as he stood up and walked away. Time stamps showed he left the shrine just minutes before the blast occurred, during evening rush hour as the area in central Bangkok was filled with people.

Police believe that Bilal is the yellow-shirted man who planted the bomb and Yusufu is believed to have detonated the bomb.

Police said they have confessions from the two, and Bilal's lawyer says his client admitted planting the deadly bomb at the behest of another suspect who remains a fugitive. He says Bilal was induced to carry out the action by a promise that his emigration to Turkey would be expedited.

Early speculation about the bombing suggested it might be the work of Uygur separatists who were angry that Thailand in July forcibly repatriated more than 100 Uighurs to China, where it is feared they face persecution. The theory was bolstered by the fact that the Erawan Shrine is popular among Chinese tourists, who figured prominently among the victims of the bombing.

Some of the 15 other suspects are Turks, with whom Uygurs share ethnic bonds, and Turkey is home to a large Uygur community.

Beijing charges that some Uygurs are Islamist terrorists and that some have been smuggled out of China to join Islamic State fighters in Syria, via Turkey.

scmp.com

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Insight & Opinion

Thai authorities have let down victims of Bangkok bombing by declaring case is closed
SCMP editorial
Saturday, 28 November, 2015

Sweeping the matter under the rug will only embolden those still free and other extremists determined to carry out further attacks


People pray at the renovated Erawan Shrine after Brahmin priests worshipped there. The renovations followed the deadly bombing of 17 August, which killed 20 and injured 123.
Photo: EPA

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Thai police say arrests made abroad in connection with Bangkok bomb
Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Nick Macfie

BANGKOK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Thai police said on Thursday that suspects wanted in connection with a bomb that ripped through a Bangkok shrine, killing 20 people, have been arrested abroad and that Thailand was in the process of requesting their extradition.

More than 120 people were wounded in the August blast, the worst peacetime bombing in Thailand's history.

So far, arrest warrants have been issued for 17 people in connection with the attack. Police have said many are thought to have fled abroad.

"We have caught more people with arrest warrants out for them in connection to this case, including Thais and foreigners, but they are currently abroad and we are in the process of working with the attorney general and foreign affairs ministry to bring them to Thailand," Police Lieutenant General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul, deputy national police chief, told reporters.

"I cannot give more details on this as it is a sensitive matter and could impact diplomatic relationships."

There has been strong criticism of the police investigation because few facts have been clearly established. Authorities were also accused of failing to seal off the crime scene properly and rapidly hosing down the pavement before forensic evidence was recovered.

It was not immediately clear if those detained would return to Thailand to appear in court.

Two suspects arrested in Thailand were indicted by a military court last month and are currently being held at a Bangkok military base.

Ten charges were brought against the pair, including illegal possession of weapons, premeditated murder and murder for the bombing.

Documents sent by prosecutors to the military court say the two men are Chinese nationals from the Muslim Uighur minority.

The men will formally hear the charges against them in February.

Police have said that the blast was in retaliation for a crackdown on human smuggling gangs earlier this year. They ruled out any link to the repatriation of 109 Uighurs to China in July.

The Uighurs are a Turkic-language speaking group that calls China's western Xinjiang region home. Some Turks see themselves as sharing cultural and religious bond with their Uighur "brothers".

The Uighur issue is sensitive for the Thai government and any link between the bomb and the deportation of people at China's behest could expose it to censure that its foreign policy led to the bomb attack.

trust.org

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Bangkok bombing suspect was tortured into confessing, says lawyer
Monday 15 February 2016

Adem Karadag, a Chinese ethnic Uighur, has retracted confession of being involved in attack that killed 20 people last year

2407.jpg
Adem Karadag, centre, at the time of his arrest last September. His lawyer says the only charge he accepts is illegal entry into Thailand.
Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit

A Chinese ethnic Uighur man arrested in Thailand over a bombing that killed 20 people in Bangkokrepatriation of more than 100 Uighurs to China in July.

China has long faced criticism for the perceived harsh restrictions it places on religion and culture in Xingjiang, where the majority of Uighurs live.

The two suspects had first been charged by a military court in November, but neither had accepted or denied the charges because of interpretation issues at that hearing, Schoochart said. They were indicted on 10 charges, including murder and illegal possession of explosives, but not terrorism.

The lawyer did not say whether the second suspect, Mieraili, would also deny the charges against him on Tuesday.

Police have issued arrest warrants for 17 people in connection with the attack, he said. Fifteen of those wanted are still at large.

theguardian.com

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Bombing Suspects Deny All Charges in Military Court
Sasiwan Mokkhasen
16 February 2016


Bangkok bombing suspect Yusufu Mieraili is led into a military court in Bangkok in an Oct. 19 file photo.

BANGKOK

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Top Brass Present During Torture, Bombing Suspect Alleges
Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Additional reporting Pravit Rojanaphruk
16 February 2016


Bombing suspect Adem Karadag led Oct. 19 into the military court in Bangkok.

BANGKOK

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Thu, 18/02/2016

The Thai police denied torture allegations of 2015 Erawan Shrine Bombing suspects while hinting that they might press charges against a lawyer of one of the suspects, saying that the lawyer allegedly caused damages to the nation.

The chief investigator on the deadly 2015 Erawan Shrine Bombing case on Wednesday,17 February 2016, denied the allegations that Adem Karadag, a Chinese ethnic Uighur who is one of the bombing suspects, were tortured to confess.

He said that neither Karadag nor another defendant on the case, Yusufu Mieraili, were tortured during the investigation procedures as alleged.

On Monday, Karadag recanted his earlier confession. Choochart Kanpai, his defence lawyer, said that his client was coerced into confessing by torture.

The lawyer said that he submitted a petition to the court last month to ask the court to investigate allegations of abuses of his client.

According to Khaosod English, in a letter addressed to the president of the Uyghur American Association, suspected Bangkok bomber Adem Karadag alleges he was tortured and coerced into confessing with various methods of physical abuse, such as beating, waterboarding and being intimidated by a barking dog in close distance.

The suspect added in the letter that the authorities also threatened to kill him and send him back to China.

Yesterday, Thai News Agency

[Texpat]

The Uighurs are a Turkic-language speaking group that calls China's western Xinjiang region home ...

... who also are known for memorizing the faces, ranks, first and last name of every high ranking Thai policeman.

He's 30. Been in Thailand ... a few weeks, and knows who all these people are?

Um, OK...

It looks like the defense is as deep into the fantastical Thai truthlessness as the prosecution is.

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Chinese tourists were Bangkok bombers' primary target
Feb 27, 2016

BANGKOK, Bangkok blast suspects Bilal Mohammed and Yusufu Mieraili arrive at military court yesterday

eturbonews.com

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Wednesday, 20 April, 2016

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed 20 and the two Uygur Muslims suspects who have been arrested deny all charges

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Thailand bomb suspect breaks down, tells media, "I'm not an animal"
Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Jutarat Skulpichetrat
Additional reporting by Pairat Temphairojana; Writing by Simon Webb; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel
Tue May 17, 2016


Suspects of last year's Bangkok blast Bilal Mohammed (front) (also known as Adem Karadag) and Yusufu Mieraili are escorted by prison officers as they arrive at the military court in Bangkok, Thailand, April 20, 2016.
Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom

One of two ethnic Uighur Muslims from China accused of involvement in a deadly bombing in Thailand last year broke down and complained of mistreatment on Tuesday as he appeared in court.

Twenty people were killed and more than 120 injured in the bombing on Aug. 17 at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok when it was thronged with tourists. Five of the dead were from China and two from Hong Kong.

No group claimed responsibility.

Analysts, diplomats and even some officials suspected the attack was linked to sympathisers of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China angered by the Thai junta's deportation of more than 100 Uighurs to China the previous month.

But Thai police ruled out "terrorism" as a motive and said the perpetrators were members of a network that trafficked Uighurs and launched the attack in anger at a Thai crackdown on the trade.

Police have arrested two suspects, Yusufu Mieraili and Adem Karadag, both of whom are Uighurs, and have issued arrest warrants for 15 other people, eight of whom are thought to be either Turkish or in Turkey, according to warrants and police statements.

Karadag and Mieraili have denied all charges against them.

"I'm not an animal," a shaven, shackled and barefoot Karadag told reporters, as two guards led him into a military court.

"I'm human, I'm human."

Inside the court, the tearful Karadag lifted his shirt, pointed to bruises and said through an interpreter that he had been beaten twice this month in custody, a Reuters witness said.

The judge said he would investigate and would consider a request by Karadag's lawyer for a transfer.

Karadag's lawyer, Schoochart Kanpai, said earlier his client had been tortured into confessing.

A stony-faced Mieraili appealed for help.

"We're innocent, help us, help us, where are the human rights?" Mieraili said as he emerged from a prison van outside the court.

Lawyers said more than 250 witnesses could be called for the prosecution and defence. Schoochart said he hoped the trial would be over by the end of 2016, but it could drag on a year longer.

Police say Karadag was caught on CCTV footage at the shrine, sitting on a bench and slipping off a bulky backpack before walking away, just before the blast.

Most Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, live in China's violence-plagued Xinjiang region. Exiles and human rights groups say Uighurs chafe under government policies that restrict their culture and religion.

China denies this and blames Islamists for rising violence.

uk.reuters.com

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Sasiwan Mokkhasen
01 June 2016


A powerful blast left a scene of devastation August 17 at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine, killing 20 people and injuring nearly 100.

BANGKOK Reported IntimidationDramatic Torture AllegationsEvidence Weighed

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Security officers escort Mohammad Bilal and Yusufu Mieraili to the martial court in Bangkok, Nov. 12, 2015
(courtesy of Khaosod English)

prachatai.com

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Translator for Uyghur Bombing Suspects Jailed in Thailand
Reported by Benar News staff in Bangkok and Washington
2016-06-03


Suspects in the Erawan shrine bombing in Bangkok in August 2015, identified by the ruling junta as Yusufu Mieraili (front left) and Adem Karadag (center), are escorted by police at a military court in Bangkok on April 20, 2016.
AFP

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Translator for Uyghur Bombing Suspects Released from Jail: Police
Reported by Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews.
2016-06-07


Suspects in the Erawan shrine bombing in Bangkok last August, identified by the ruling junta as Adem Karadag (C) and Yusufu Mieraili (back L), arrive at a military court in Bangkok, Feb. 16, 2016.
AFP