Nothing fishy there.
Two suspects are believed to be hiding in Cambodia, which many people are unaware does have a fairly sizable Muslim population. Uighur trafficking is thought to be a major component of the case.
Confusingly in that story, the named Muslim Thai woman they’re looking for seems to be in Turkey. She told the press she’s spoken with police by telephone and that they called her back later to tell her not to talk to the press. The police checked travel records and found she left Thailand on July 1, but then other police say they’re not convinced she really ever left Thailand.
Another suspect arrested, in Cambodia, and already handed over the border.
It appears he may be a bit higher in the hierarchy than the one they caught before.
This one was on a Chinese passport.
They think the one nabbed today was the yellow-shirted bomber in the video. His Chinese passport identifies him as from Xinjiang province, which is the home of China’s Uighur minority. Name is supposedly Yusufu Mieraili, age 25.
It looks like the latest perp they caught is The Guy. He admits to being at the scene but denies planting the bomb. But his fingerprints have been found on some of the bomb-making material seized in those apartments. It’s not looking good for him. But there’s some confusion over the details of his apprehension. Some stories say he was nabbed by Thai police as he was attempting to cross into Cambodia, others by Cambodian police after he did cross over, while still others say he was nabbed in Phnom Penh before boarding a flight to Turkey and then handed over to the Thai police across from Poipet on the border. (I have elsewhere on this Board identified Poipet, Cambodia as the Asshole of the Universe.) I wonder if Cambodian authorities will share in any reward. Don’t hold your breath!
Looks like the Uighur deportations were probably the spark after all. Here’s a little background on that. But it’s not clear whether the perps are simply angered in principle by the deportations or if this is revenge for breaking up a Uighur-trafficking operation.
EDIT: There are apparently more perps out there, so who knows if there won’t be other bombs somewhere eventually. This isn’t over yet.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cambodia wants to wash its hands of it all to avoid any, shall we say, unwanted attention.
Just now a third suspect has been arrested, this time in the far South, it’s a bit sketchy because the only link mentioned is that he had called the woman who had rented the apartment used by the bombers.
As for the motives, I would guess a bit of both.
It looks like the bomber remains at large: “DNA samples from Yusufu Mieraili, 25, did not match those found in the suspected bomber’s taxi, on a banknote or on shreds of the bomb-containing backpack the suspect handled.” Evidence still ties him to the bomb, but it looks like he really isn’t the guy seen in the video placing it.
But on the positive side, four Thai men who killed three people in last year’s explosion near that same intersection have received life sentences. That blast was, if not a stone’s throw away from last month’s blast, then certainly no more than two stones’ throw. It’s amazing how violent that one intersection has been over the past 5-1/2 years, as it’s become Protest Central in times of uprise.
Small update. Things do seem to be moving. The suspect who crossed or was crossing into Cambodia has confessed to making the bomb. Says he confessed because he’d rather be prosecuted here than in China. Probably a smart move. He admits having handed off the bomb to the yellow-shirted guy in the video but insists he doesn’t know who he is. Two Indian nationals have been detained, and warrants for more suspects have been issued.
Now if they could just capture that rich Red Bull heir who killed the cop a couple of years ago.
Does Thailand not use execution as a remedy in these cases? Is he just hoping for a more fair trial, or does he have a chance to live?
Thailand does have the death penalty, but I think he’d still have a better time of it here than in China. And that says a lot about China.
The Hong Kong photojournalist popped for possessing a bulletproof vest has been released and told he can leave the country. But the charges are still pending, and he’s supposed to return for them.
Small update. Lots of warrants have been issued for people named and unnamed and of different nationalities. A few people have been picked up in Thailand and Malaysia. The yellow-shirted man in the video has reportedly been identified, but authorities are not releasing his name. It seems he entered Malaysia over the land border and has since left that country, if the police can be believed.
It looks more and more like this is directly connected to those Uighurs being returned to China. But rather than it being a case of simple, generic Muslim outrage at the act, it seems to have been an act of pure revenge by a Uighur-trafficking ring upset that their operation was scuttled.
And since some of the captured foreign perps have been claiming to have paid bribes for their visas, Immigration is cracking down. Visa runs out of the country and then back in have now been banned, and I personally know of one farang (Westerner) who got hassled majorly by police doing spot checks on the street because he didn’t have a copy of his passport on him. That will probably blow over before long though.
Update: Now they’re back to thinking the first guy arrested in that apartment in Bangkok’s Minburi district was the yellow-shirted bomber after all. Seems CCTV footage has him entering a public restroom in Lumpini Park, not far from the blast site, and reemerging wearing a different shirt and looking more like the guy arrested. He’d been wearing glasses and a wig to alter his appearance.
It’s for sure now: That first guy they arrested is the yellow-shirted bomber. They’ve had him in custody all along and didn’t know it.
Sam, are the Thai police generally considered to be competent? I know it seems to be taking a while, but real life isn’t like cop shows.
The Thai police are about as incompetent and generally corrupt as you can possibly imagine, and then some. Seriously, it’s best to avoid bringing in the police on just about anything if it can possibly be avoided.
There’s a statue in front of National Police headquarters in Bangkok, a statue of a policeman carrying a little boy to safety. The joke among the Thais is that’s the only helpful policeman in Thailand.
I have known some good cops. When I lived up North, my neighbor was a Border Patrol cop. He was a super-nice guy, with a nice wife and little girl. I knew a member of the Tourist Police force, and he was pretty cool. (The Tourist Police are possibly the most helpful, but if they know you’re not a tourist but rather a resident, there’s not much they’ll do for you.)
My friend in the northeastern province of Roi Et has a cop for a brother-in-law. I’ve met him and even mentioned him on the Board before. He’s a nice guy and completely honest. He believes in public service and just wants to be a cop. Sadly, he has no cop friends, because none of them trusts an honest cop. No one wants him around, so he just keeps getting transferred all over the Northeast.
That’s kind of scary.
Eh, you get used to it.
And like me, the police are still wondering if there might not be a red-shirt connection after all. According to the link, one of the two Thai suspects “is linked to a bomb blast that took place at Samarn Metta Mansion in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district on Oct 5, 2010.” That’s in the Greater Bangkok area. I remember that blast well. A known red-shirt bomb maker killed himself making bombs (the same case that I mentioned in post #29 on the first page of this thread).
(Don’t be fooled by the word “Mansion.” Apartment complexes here, no matter how seedy, often include “Mansion” in their names.)
Sounds more like the suspect is some sort of hired gun, or bomb as the case may be.
By the way, I used to live close to a condo called Porn Mansion…