2 foreign suspects in Bangkok bombing plead innocent

Published 10:08 am Tuesday, February 16, 2016

BANGKOK — Two Uighur Muslims from China pleaded innocent Tuesday to carrying out the deadly bombing of a Bangkok landmark last year, with one man’s lawyer saying his client claims to have been tortured to elicit a confession.

The two men — Bilal Mohammad, 31, and Mieraili Yusufu, 27 — face eight charges related to the bombing, including conspiracy to explode bombs and commit premeditated murder. Twenty people, including 14 foreign tourists, were killed and more than 120 injured in the August attack, one of the deadliest acts of violence in Bangkok in decades.

Bilal, also known as Adem Karadag — the name on a fake Turkish passport he was carrying when he was arrested — faces two additional charges of violating immigration law by entering Thailand illegally. The defendants had refused to take a plea at an earlier count appearance because there was no Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) translator available.

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Both men told the court Tuesday they were Chinese citizens of the Uighur minority, from the city of Urumqi in western China’s Xinjiang region.

Thai authorities have said the bombing of the popular Erawan Shrine was revenge by a people-smuggling gang whose activities were disrupted by a crackdown.

However, some analysts suspected it might have been the work of Uighur separatists angry that Thailand in July had forcibly repatriated more than 100 Uighurs to China, where they may be persecuted. The Erawan Shrine is especially popular among Chinese tourists, and many were among the victims of the bombing.