01 September 2015

Editorial: 1 Suspect Arrested, 2 More Sought in Bangkok Bombing

By Shannon Tiezzi

Two of the suspects are foreigners, believed to be Turkish.

On August 29, 12 days after a deadly bomb blast at Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thai police announced that they had arrested a suspect. Twenty people were killed and over 100 were injured in the bombing.

On Saturday, Thai authorities arrested a 28-year-old man described as a “foreigner” at an apartment building in the Nong Chok area of Bangkok. Police said that they found materials that could be used to make a bomb inside the suspect’s apartment, including metal ball bearings of the same size as those used in the August 17 explosion and a detonator.

Col. Noppasit Sithipongsophon, who led the search of the suspect’s apartment, told Bangkok Post that the man was “definitely involved” in the bombing.

Police also discovered multiple passports in the apartment, including one Turkish passport that was obviously a fake (reporters who saw the passport said that the expiration date was printed twice and that the word “Istanbul” was misspelled).

Though authorities have not officially confirmed the man’s name or nationality, Thai media are reporting that he is Turkish, citing anonymous police sources. In addition to carrying a fake Turkish passport, Bangkok Post reported that a Turkish-speaking interpreter was brought in to help the police question the suspect.

Read the full story at The Diplomat