Bangkok bomb suspect confesses to possession of explosives, say police

Yusufu Mieraili was handed over to the police yesterday by the NCPO. Photo: Royal Thai Police

One of the two men arrested over last month’s deadly Bangkok bombing has admitted to a charge of possessing explosives, police said Monday, in the first confession over the unprecedented attack on Thailand.

Thai police say the suspect, Yusufu Mieraili, was arrested last week near the border with Cambodia.

“We have informed him of the charge. He acknowledged and confessed to the charge,” national police spokesperson Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters.

Police have not revealed his nationality, although he was caught in possession of a Chinese passport with a birthplace listed as Xinjiang — home to the country’s oppressed Uighur Muslim minority.

A second man identified as Adem Karadag has already been charged over the crime after he was caught in a flat in a Bangkok suburb with bomb-making paraphernalia and dozens of fake Turkish passports.

Police have said neither man is thought to have physically planted the bomb on Aug 17 at a religious shrine in downtown Bangkok that killed 20 people.

But they are confident the pair are involved in the network blamed for the attack, which rocked the capital and dented faith in Thailand’s key tourist sector.

Mystery surrounds the alleged bombers’ motive but speculation has hardened on links to China’s Turkic-speaking Uighur minority.

Thailand deported scores of Uighur refugees to China early in the summer, prompting protests in Turkey where some nationalists hold a deep affinity with the minority group.

Source: Coconuts 

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#Bangkok, More attacks may have been planned, police say

EMBASSY SAYS ARRESTED MAN ISN'T A TURK; SUSPECT HAS LIVED IN NONG CHOK SINCE JUNE

 

 THE FOREIGN suspect arrested by police on Saturday for his alleged link to the August 17 bombing of the Erawan Shrine moved into Pool Anant Apartment in Bangkok's Nong Chok district sometime in June along with another foreigner believed to be Turkish, according to the building supervisor.

Thanakorn Wiwannakorn, 60, who has been the apartment's supervisor for over a decade, told police the 28-year-old suspect and his friend were quiet and mostly stayed inside their room on the fourth floor.

Other apartment tenants said one of them had a dark complexion, coming and going at regular hours, while the other hardly left the room and apparently got a haircut and shaved his beard a few weeks ago.

A source at the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said military and police officials questioned the suspect on Saturday night and recorded the whole interrogation. They intend to question him more about renting the apartment room, bomb equipment and fake passports found in the room.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Embassy said the suspect arrested on Saturday was not a Turkish national.

Yesterday, police searched an apartment in Nong Chok after receiving a tip that two suspicious foreigners resided there. The apartment was identified as Ton Koon Mansion on Soi Chuam Samphun 3, near Pool Anant Apartment.

Earlier, police found two bags of urea fertiliser and other bomb-making ingredients at Mai-moo-na Garden, in nearby Min Buri district.

Police found no additional suspects at these locations.

Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda said police believe several suspects in the network were involved in the deadly bombing at Erawan Shrine, and that they were also connected with the attack on the pier near Sathorn Bridge the following day. A team consisting of four or five investigators is working on this case and they urged the public to be the eyes and ears of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, police believe the Shrine bomb suspect was prepared to carry out more attacks in other locations, judging from evidence found in his room.

According to Police spokesman Pol Lt-General Prawut Thawornsiri, evidence found inside the suspect's room included detonating chords similar to the detonating chord found at the related blast at the pier near Sathorn Bridge.

The August 17 bombing at the Erawan Shrine at Ratchaprasong intersection, a popular tourist destination, killed 20 people including foreign visitors and injured 171 others. The attack at the pier near Sathorn Bridge the following day resulted in no casualties.

The bombing suspect is being detained for questioning at the Infantry Battalion of the 11th Army Circle under martial law.

Prawut said it was not yet clear if the suspect was responsible for the attack at the Erawan Shrine or the pier near Sathorn Bridge but police believe he was a member of the network responsible for those attacks.

He said police were waiting for the results of a DNA test from a banknote the bomber used to pay his taxi fare and other samples found in the taxi.

Prawut said the suspect denied that he was a collaborator in the bomb attack. He had told police how he came into the country but police did not believe him.

Prawut denied reports that the suspect travelled from Istanbul and came to Thailand via Vietnam and Laos, saying police initially found the suspect stayed in an Asian country before travelling to Thailand.

Prawut said the police obtained pictures of other members of the gang and were checking their identities and nationalities. Immigration officials have been instructed to prevent other suspected gang members from leaving the country.

Police have not ruled out other possible motives for the bomb attack though they believe that it could be a personal vendetta after police crackdowns on foreigners.

Police also found evidence from a signal on the suspect's phone that he travelled to a location that was linked to the bomb attack. Prawut declined to say if that location was Hua Lam Phong train station, where the bomb suspect was seen hailing a tuk-tuk to take him to Erawan Shrine.

Prawut said a taxi driver was summoned for questioning several times because he gave conflicting statements that contradicted evidence. The telephone information also showed that the taxi driver contacted the suspect several times.

After the suspect was arrested on Saturday, the Turkish government sent a letter pledging to give Thailand its full support to fight terrorism.

Source: The Nation 
 

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Phone data leads to arrest Bangkok Bomber

NOTHING TO CHANCE: More than 100 police and military officers were involved in the arrest. 

 News > Security Phone data leads to bomb arrest Ball bearings and bomb-building equipment found in suspect's room.

A police source close to the investigation said the arrest of the foreign man, who is believed to be Turkish, came after investigators spent more than a week sifting through every mobile phone call made within the vicinity of the shrine around the time of the bombing on Aug 17. 

He said officers managed to identify three Turkish phone numbers which had activated international roaming services and were in use near the blast site.
.Police apparently traced one of those phone numbers to the suspect apprehended yesterday. Around 100 police and soldiers moved in to make the arrest around 3pm at the Pool Anant apartment building in Nong Chok district, in the city’s eastern outskirts.
.A military source said the suspect held a Turkish passport by the name of Adem Karadag, 28, although the document was later found to be fake.
.A large quantity of bomb-making materials and equipment which allegedly belong to the suspect were seized from his rented room.

READ MORE: BangkokPost
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Turkish Suspect Arrested In Connection With Bangkok Bombing

A Thai police handout photo shows Turkish suspect Adem Karadag after his arrest Saturday in Bangkok in connection with a bombing August 17 at a central Bangkok shrine, which killed 20 people. A police spokesman said bomb-making materials were found at his apartment and they were similar to the device that detonated nearly two weeks ago. EPA

BANGKOK (DPA) - A foreign suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with a bombing this month at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, police said.

"We arrested a 28-year-old foreign national who had in his possession bomb-making materials, including fuses, ball bearings and pipes," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said.

The materials were similar to the device used in the August 17 bombing, Prawut said, adding that the suspect probably was linked to the attack but might not have been the actual bomber.

The spokesman also showed a picture during a press conference of a dozen passports emblazoned with a crescent and star found in the possession of the suspect. Local media reported that the passports are Turkish in origin.

A police source who declined to be named said police acted on a tip from the landlord who owned the apartment that the suspect was renting.

The landlord grew suspicious because the suspect did not speak Thai and rented five rooms on the same floor of the apartment complex.

Local residents told reporters that the suspect had been living in the apartment for two weeks before the bombing at the Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok.

Kasem Pooksuwan, the motorcycle taxi driver who said he drove the suspect away from the bombing, said pictures released of the man arrested looked similar to the bomber.

"They have the same chin and nose," Kasem said.

Television footage late Saturday showed the suspect wearing a black hood being taken away from the apartment complex as onlookers watched.

Police said the suspect will be interrogated.

Anthony Davis - a regional security analyst with Britain's IHS Jane's, which provides intelligence to militaries and governments - said at a forum this week that the Bangkok bombing did not fit the pattern of attack of local and regional groups.

Davis said the most likely group to have carried out the attack is a far-right Turkish organization known as the Grey Wolves. Davis said that the motive for such an attack could have been the repatriation of Uigher refugees to China by the Thai government.

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