Arrest warrant issued for 8th suspect in Bangkok bombings

Much remains unknown about the man arrested Saturday, including his true name and nationality and his motive.

Police Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda is said to be bringing the suspect to Bangkok by helicopter for interrogation.

They say a man identified only as a foreigner but who speaks Turkish who was arrested on Tuesday near the border with Cambodia had admitted being near the shrine around the time of the attack but denied placing the bomb.

Authorities had not yet determined his nationality, dismissing reports by local news organisations that he is Turkish, he said.

On Thursday, police officials said the bomb probably wasn’t the work of worldwide terrorists, although an arrest warrant issued earlier for the unnamed key suspect described him as a foreigner. Muslim minority Uighurs say they face persecution and oppression in their native China.

Police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said fingerprints of the suspect who was arrested on Tuesday were found on explosives in the same room. The Chinese passport says the suspect is in his 20s and from Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, according to Duowei News. In an emailed statement, the embassy said it was “awaiting an official reply from the Thai authorities“.

The second unidentified man was seized in Sa Kaeo province, east of Bangkok on the border with Cambodia, on Tuesday.

Authorities have yet to tie the suspects to any one country, instead promoting a theory that the attack was born of a grudge foreign human traffickers, whose business was hurt by a Thai government clampdown following the June discovery of corpses at a southern people trafficking camp.

A 28-year-old foreign man was arrested in Bangkok suburb of Nong Chok on Saturday in connection with the blast as police found bomb-making materials and several forged passports in his room.

Both suspects who have been arrested are being interrogated by the military and have not yet been charged.

“We can confirm that this man is directly involved with the bomb material”, Prawut said.

The Min Buri Provincial Court on Wednesday approved an arrest warrant for the Turkish husband of Wanna Suansan, the only Thai suspect in the Erawan and Sathorn pier bombings.

She said she’s in Turkey with her baby and husband, who is Turkish, according to Saharat.

Yesterday, a manhunt was underway for a man, wearing a yellow t-shirt and heavy-framed glasses, seen in CCTV footage apparently depositing a black rucksack at the scene before vanishing into the crowd only minutes before the explosion.

“We can confirm that this man is directly involved with the bomb material”, Thavornsiri said.

Many Uighurs have fled to south-east Asia in the hope of then travelling to Turkey, which has strong cultural links to the group and has sheltered them for decades.