Roundup: Prime suspects in Bangkok bombing re-enact at blast scene

Major suspects in last month's Bangkok bombing were taken to the scenes for re-enactment on Saturday, police said.

Adem Karadag, alias Mohammad Bilaturk, and Yusufu Mieraili were led under tight custody of the police to the blast scene at Erawan shrine near Ratchaprasong intersection for re-enactment following recent testimony by Karadag in which he said he was the person who placed the bomb at the shrine which killed 20 people, including tourists, and injured more than 100 others on Aug. 17.

Karadag, who had been arrested at a rented apartment on the Thai capital's eastern outskirts, was detained at an army barracks where he made his alleged confession admitting that he was the fugitive Arab-looking male who had placed the bomb at the shrine, the police said.

The man in a yellow T-shirt was seen in a close-circuited TV footage leaving a backpack purportedly containing the explosive at the shrine, taking a picture of himself and finally walking off shortly before the blast occurred.

Karadag told his investigators he had worn a wig and eyeglasses to disguise himself and then went to Lumpini Park nearby to change his clothes in a bathroom, the police said.

Nonetheless, Chuchart Kanpai, the Thai lawyer handling the case on behalf of Karadag, argued that his client might possibly have given untruthful testimony for yet unknown reasons. He had earlier alleged of possessing explosive-making materials at his Nong Jok apartment, Chuchart said.

According to the lawyer, who said he planned to see his client at the 11th Army Circle headquarters in Dusit area again on Monday, Karadag is obviously smaller in torso size than the man in the yellow T-shirt caught in the CCTV footage.

Meanwhile, Mieraili, the other Arab-looking suspect, was taken to a nearby scene for re-enactment at Sansab canal, about 500 meter away from the shrine, where he admitted having deliberately dropped the cellphone which he had used to detonate the bomb.

Boat traffic in the canal was temporarily called off to allow divers to search for Mieraili's cellphone.

Mieraili earlier admitted to the police that he had handed out the bomb in the backpack to his alleged partner at a spot outside Hualumpong railway station, about 5 km from the shrine.

Police chief Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung said those suspects are "no scapegoat" and confirmed that the case will be finished by the police investigators before the end of this month when he is scheduled to retire.

He said the police had obtained pieces of evidence to substantiate the charges that crime was perpetrated by the detained suspects. He did not go into details about the evidence, however.

Arrest warrants are yet to be issued by court for 10 more bombing suspects in addition to 16 others for whom such warrants had been issued, the police said.

The names and nationalities of those suspects cannot be divulged to the public for fear of more or less spoiling the unfinished investigation, they said. Endi