Thai police seek 10th suspect in deadly Bangkok bombing

Police in Thailand are now looking for a 10th suspect in last month's bombing of the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok that killed 20 people.

|
Penny Yi Wang/AP
Thai police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri speaks at a press conference at police headquarters, Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Police in Thailand are now looking for a 10th suspect in last month's bombing of the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok that killed 20 people.

Thai police said Saturday that they are looking for a 10th suspect in last month's bombing of a landmark in central Bangkok that killed 20 people.

Authorities will seek an arrest warrant soon for a man who shared an apartment with a suspect who was arrested a week ago when a police raid found bomb-making materials in his room, said national police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri, adding that the man's nationality was unknown.

The arrested man, who is facing a main charge of illegally possessing explosives, was brought to court Saturday to obtain permission for his detention to be extended. When he was arrested, police found a fake Turkish passport in his apartment carrying the name Adam Karadag, but now call him Adem Karadak.

Another man was arrested near the border with Cambodia. Neither of the arrested men's nationalities has been confirmed.

Arrest warrants have been issued for seven other suspects in the Aug. 17 attack at Bangkok's popular Erawan Shrine, which also injured more than 120 people. Thai authorities say that at least two of the suspects are believed to be Turkish.

Prawut said that a sketch of the new suspect had been completed, but that police were waiting on seeking a warrant until a witness could confirm its likeness. He suggested that the suspect was deeply involved in the gang that is believed to have carried out the bombing at the shrine, and another one the next day near a busy Bangkok river pier that caused no casualties when the bomb exploded in the water.

"There is nothing else to update because it's still on secret operations," Prawut said. "But it's getting close now that we will be able to reveal. We expect some developments next week."

Police seemed to have progressed quickly in their investigation since the first raid on an apartment in Bangkok's outskirts on Aug. 29.

There had been speculation that the foreigner arrested at the border near Cambodia was the yellow-shirted man seen in security videos apparently planting the deadly bomb near the shrine. The bomber is believed to have left a pipe bomb in a knapsack at the open-air shrine when it was packed with worshippers during evening rush hour.

However, Prawut said Friday that DNA samples taken from the suspect did not match the DNA found on evidence that the bomber is believed to have left behind — in a taxi, on banknotes and on a motorcycle taxi he took the night of the attack.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Thai police seek 10th suspect in deadly Bangkok bombing
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2015/0905/Thai-police-seek-10th-suspect-in-deadly-Bangkok-bombing
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe