Lawyer: Adem Karadag claimed he was tortured to gain confession.<\/p>\n
2016-02-16<\/p>\n
Two Uyghur men pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the Aug. 17, 2015, bombing at a Hindu Shrine in central Bangkok that killed 20 people and injured 120 more.<\/p>\n
Appearing in a Thai military court, Adem Karadag, 31, and Yusufu Meiraili, 28, both identified themselves as Uyghurs from Urumqi in China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.<\/p>\n
Karadag\u2019s lawyer claimed he entered Thailand on Aug. 21, days after the attack, so could not be responsible.<\/p>\n
He also alleged that unidentified officials tortured Karadag in custody with water boarding, dog intimidation and a threat to return him to Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe said actions were aimed at forcing him to admit that he was the suspected bomber who planted the bomb seen in security camera records,\u201d lawyer Chuchart Kanpai told reporters.<\/p>\n
Uyghur and English translators were present as Karadag and Mieraili heard the charges against them and pleaded innocent.<\/p>\n
Mieraili challenged the court for his incarceration. \u201cIt is not the right thing to have detained a Muslim for too long,\u201d Meiraili said through an English translator.<\/p>\n
Potential death sentences<\/strong><\/p>\n Karadag, aka Bilal Mohammad, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2015, after police said they had found bomb-making materials at an apartment in Bangkok\u2019s suburban Nongjok district. He was charged with offenses ranging from premeditated killing and bomb possession to illegal entry into Thailand, and could face a death sentence if convicted.<\/p>\n Mieraili was arrested on Sept. 1, 2015, while attempting to flee to neighboring Cambodia, police allege. Investigators claim he was attempting to acquire materials to make bombs. He could face a death sentence as well if convicted.<\/p>\n In the days following their arrests, both men participated in police-staged reenactments of the alleged events leading to the bombing.<\/p>\n The attack at the Hindu shrine, popular with both Thais and foreign tourists, took place during the busy evening rush time. A security camera captured footage of a man leaving a backpack on a bench at the shrine moments before the blast.<\/p>\n A pipe bomb explosion the next day near Sathorn passenger pier, some five miles from the shrine, caused no injuries.<\/p>\n No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.<\/p>\n In September, then-police chief Pol. Gen. Somyos Poompanmuang told a press conference that a Uyghur group had carried out the attack to wreak revenge on Thai authorities for clamping down on them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe the motive behind this incident stemmed from government officials arresting or cracking down on a human trafficking ring,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n In June, Thai authorities forcibly repatriated nearly 100 Uyghurs to China, drawing criticism and protests from rights activists and Uyghur advocates who say the Muslim minority suffers harsh repression in China.<\/p>\n The next court hearings in the Erawan case are scheduled between April 20 and 22.<\/p>\n Thai investigators claim as many as 15 more suspects are wanted for their roles in the attacks, including a man who hurled a bomb near the Sathorn pier.<\/p>\n Reported by RFA.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawyer: Adem Karadag claimed he was tortured to gain confession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}