The Chief of the Royal Thai Police this week promised that legal action would be taken against any party involved in the August 17th bombing at the Erawan shrine centre in Bangkok.
The Royal Thai Police in Bangkok have now identified the key actor and ‘mastermind’ of the August 17th bombing in central Bangkok at the Erawan shrine and believe that he may be still at large in Turkey.
The police have revealed that the suspect who was identified at the outset as the man who placed the bomb at the scene managed to leave Thailand days after and it is believed that he travelled to Dhaka in Bangladesh before travelling on to Turkey.
Police initially believed that the man was headed for China. It is also reported that the identity of the man is now known to the police.
This comes in a week when police in Bangkok conducted reenactments of the bombing and when it is reported one of the key suspects Yusufu Mieraili has confessed to being involved in the outrage.
The Chief of the Royal Thai Police this week promised that legal action would be taken against any party involved in the August 17th bombing at the Erawan shrine centre in Bangkok.
Legal action promised against all involved
The Chief of Police told reporters that it was not always possible to believe some of the things that the recently arrested suspects had told police and that the police had proceeded cautiously.
The police chief however was confident that there was enough evidence to prosecute the suspects involved.
It was also reported this week that one of the suspects now identified as an active player in the plot had told police that he was guilty while a reenactment of the crime was staged over a number of days in central Bangkok
. During the week a tenth arrest warrant was issued in connection with the bombing which killed twenty people. The Thai police chief General Somyot Pumpanmuang told reporters that he was confident that the warrant would be issued soon. ‘Applying for the arrest warrant should be no problem’ he said but asked for details of the investigation he said that it was not possible to disclose this information at this point.
Thai police hot on the trail of the key player in the bomb plot that was one of Thailand’s deadliest
The arrest warrants that have been issued are thought to include one for the man seen on security footage leaving a backpack at the scene of the Erawan shrine some minutes before the explosion on August 17th.
The bomb attack at Ratchaprasong has been described as one of Thailand’s deadliest attacks in many decades.
The three men who have been arrested by the police so far have been named Adem Karadag, Yusufu Mierailai and a Thai Muslim man from Narathiwat province who has been named Gamarudeng Saho.
The first man arrested Adam Karadag at an apartment building in Minburi in Bangkok was found to be carrying forged Turkish passports and Thai police have reported that this man has called himself Mohammed Bilaturk. Karadag, the first suspect arrested by police was formally charged on Friday last 4th of September.
Mierailai who has been identified as the mastermind of the attack was found to be carrying a Chinese passport when arrested near the border with Cambodia. This passport seemed to identify Mieraili with the Uighur population in China but Royal Thai police have yet to confirm whether the passport is genuine.
CCTV footage used by police investigators to identify more suspects in the Erawan bomb blast
The Royal Thai police chief General Somyot Pumpanmuang has also told the press that police also believe that they have identified two suspects from CCTV footage at a well-known shopping mall near the Erawan shrine.
It is thought that this is the Central World shopping mall one of the largest in Bangkok.
The police have also revealed that their investigators are reviewing footage at shops selling chemicals that may have been used in the preparation of the bomb in the Minburi district of Bangkok.
The first suspect Adam Karadag was arrested on August 29th at an apartment building in Minburi where police found a cache of bomb-making materials in several rooms which had been rented by the gang involved in the deadly bomb attack.
Participant in bombing arrested near the Cambodian border is charged by police investigators
The alleged participant of the bombing itself Yusufi Mieraili has also been formally charged although the focus now is on moves to apprehend the ring leader initially identified as the man who placed the bomb at the scene.
It is reported that he is being detained at an army barracks in Bangkok under special orders from the Thai military junta which permits soldiers to detain individuals without a court warrant for up to seven days.
It is reported that Karadag, the first suspect arrested was also held at the same army camp and interrogated before being handed over last Friday to the police to be formally charged in connection with the possession of explosives.
Bomb suspect arrested suffers stress in prison
Karadag is being held at a remand prison in Minburi. The Director of the prison Paitoon Amphan has told the press that the prisoner has been assigned a psychiatrist after showing signs of stress but later adapted to his circumstances in the prison.
The Director said it would not be necessary to transfer him to a maximum security prison as he was being monitored by prison staff 24 hours a day.
The first warrant in the case issued for premeditated murder and causing explosions identified a foreigner of unknown nationality and is linked to CCTV footage of the key suspect in a yellow shirt seen leaving a backpack at the Erawan shrine three minutes before the deadly explosion occurred there on August 17th.
The Erawan bombing killed twenty people and injured up to one hundred and fifty others.
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