Bangkok bomb suspect sobs as he alleges mistreatment
Print Edition
A CHINESE Uygur accused of planting last year’s deadly Bangkok bomb claimed he was being mistreated in custody, shouting “I am human, I am human” as he struggled with guards on his way to a hearing.
Bilal Mohammed, also known as Adem Karadag, and co-defendant Yusufu Mieraili are charged with key roles in the August 2015 bombing of the Erawan shrine in downtown Bangkok that killed 20 people — mainly Chinese tourists.
Mohammed, 31, a Chinese citizen from the Uygur ethnic minority, is accused of being the man seen in CCTV footage wearing a yellow T-shirt and placing a backpack at the Erawan shrine moments before the explosion.
Prosecutors say he was caught a few days later in a Bangkok flat surrounded by explosives.
Mieraili, 26 and also a Chinese Uygur, is accused of delivering the backpack bomb.
The pair deny the charges, although Mieraili has admitted entering the country illegally.
Arriving shackled and shaven-headed at the Bangkok court yesterday, a visibly distressed Mohammed shouted his complaints to reporters in his native Uygur and then in English.
The drama continued in the courtroom where a sobbing Mohammed spoke through a translator to accuse his Thai captors of beating him and denying him halal food.
“I cannot eat, I am laughed at when I pray,” he said.
Mohammed’s lawyer has previously accused the Thai police of forcing confessions from his client. An initial admission of guilt was later retracted.
Police deny the torture allegations and say that the evidence against the pair is watertight, including forensics, CCTV footage and mobile phone data.
However, they are still seeking a number of other suspects — many of whom, including the alleged mastermind, are believed to be overseas.
A convincing motive has yet to be established for the attack that dented Thailand’s tourist industry and spread fear through a politically febrile country under military rule.
Thai authorities have rejected a theory that the bomb was a revenge attack for the deportations of more than 100 Uygurs to China a month earlier, instead insisting that the unprecedented attack on the capital was in retaliation for a crackdown on a people-smuggling gang.
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