Bangkok bomb suspect accuses Thai military junta of torture

Two men accused of setting off the deadliest bomb attack in Bangkok’s recent history appeared this week in Thai military court to begin their much-anticipated trial. But the event is marred by claims that Thai police physically tortured one of the suspects in order to obtain a false confession.

Last year, Thai police arrested Bilal Mohammad, also known as Adem Karadag, and Yusufu Mieraili in connection to the bomb blast at central Bangkok’s Erawan shrine that killed 14 tourists and wounded more than 120 others. The men, both ethnic Uighurs from China’s far western Xinjiang region, face 10 charges, including conspiracy to explode bombs and commit premeditated murder.

But one day before the trial began, Mohammad’s lawyer, Chuchart Kampai, claimed his client was tortured into pleading guilty.

“He confessed so that he wouldn’t be tortured again. He was just saying it,” Kampai told the Associated Press.

Thai officials dismissed the allegation, saying Kampai lacked evidence to back up his claim.

“I am fairly certain nothing happened to the suspects while they were in military custody,” said government spokesman Winthai Suvaree. According to local police, the case against Mohammad and Mieraili is supported by closed-circuit television footage, witness accounts, DNA and other physical evidence, in addition to the verbal confessions.

But Kampai claims his client now retracts his confession and will deny all charges brought before the court, except that of illegal entry into Thailand. Mohammad was initially identified as Adem Karadag, the name on a counterfeit Turkish passport in his possession.

Mieraili was arrested days after Mohammad, near the Thai-Cambodia border. He was carrying a Chinese passport that indicated he was from Xinjiang.

“I am an innocent Muslim,” Mieraili told the Thai court on Monday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, and Thai police are still on the hunt for 15 other suspects, with no reported progress. Local police believe the blast was an act of retaliation after Thailand cracked down on human smuggling.

“The cause was the human trafficking networks … transferring Uighurs from one country to another,” Thailand’s police chief, Somyot Poompanmoung, said last year in the aftermath of the attack. “We destroyed their business, which caused anger.”

But some analysts suspect the perpetrators are Uighur Muslim separatists, acting in revenge after Thailand forcibly repatriated more than 100 Uighurs back to China, where they likely will be persecuted.

Mohammad is not the first to indict the Thai junta with claims of torture. The Cross Cultural Foundation, the Patani Human Rights Network, and the Duay Jai Group recently published a report examining 54 cases of systematic physical and psychological torture by Thai police against Muslim insurgents in the nation’s southern region. The bitter insurgency has claimed 6,000 lives in the past 12 years. But human rights groups say the government is obligated under international law to investigate torture allegations and take action, regardless of the security situation.

“[The insurgency] does not justify giving a blank check to troops to commit abuses with impunity,” said Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The report criticized Thailand for failing to take action against the junta’s brutal torture methods, which include waterboarding, sleep deprivation, prolonged exposure to cold, beating, and humiliation by forcing prisoners to strip naked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.