Lawyers for Adem Karadag and Yusuf Mieraili had requested that the court postpone the opening of the trial until September 15 so they could find someone who speaks Uighur – a Turkic dialect spoken by the people of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
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Most of the 20 people suspected to be involved in Thailand’s latest round of bomb and arson attacks, which killed four people and left scores injured, were from the southern provinces, police chief Gen Chakthip Caijinda confirmed today.
He also said that the 20 people who were involved in the clandestine mission came from the “younger generation” and this explained the scant details the authorities have on the suspects. Fourteen of the dead were tourists.
The next hearing was scheduled for Sept 15, with Pol Lt Col Tuaytep Wibunsin, a Special Branch Police officer, the first prosecution witness scheduled to testify.
The delay is the latest snag in a cryptic case that has so far shed little light on the horrific attack in Thailand’s capital a year ago that also left 100 people wounded. “It will take quite some time”, Chuchart Kanpai, a defense attorney said.
The Erawan Shrine is especially popular among Chinese tourists, and many were among the victims of the bombing.
Prosecutors allege the bombing was revenge by a people-smuggling gang whose activities were disrupted by a crackdown.
Many analysts believe the bombing was a retaliation for the Thai junta’s forcible repatriation of 109 Uighurs to China several weeks before the attack.
Police have said that both suspects have confessed to being paid by a mastermind to build and plant the bomb, but Karadag’s lawyer has said his client was tortured into a confession by plainclothes men in military custody.
Police say the case against the two men is supported by closed-circuit television footage, witnesses, DNA matching and physical evidence, in addition to their confessions.
“After investigating these claims, the court finds them to be false and the defendants will remain where they are since this is a case of national security”, one of the three judges on the panel ruled, as quoted in the Associated Press.
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Police believe that Mieraili, minutes later, had detonated the bomb. Beijing charges that some Uighurs are Islamist terrorists and that some have been smuggled out of China to join Islamic State fighters in Syria via Turkey. News stories displayed here appear in our category for General and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Please see our terms of service for more information.
