BANGKOK, THAILAND (Reuters) — Two Chinese ethnic Uighur men on Tuesday (February 16) appeared at a Thai military court and denied all charges against them for involvement in a bombing that killed 20 people in Bangkok last year.
Most of those killed in the Aug. 17 explosion at the Erawan shrine near a busy Bangkok intersection were foreigners. More than 120 were wounded by the blast at the shrine, a popular attraction for both tourists and Thais alike.
“I am an innocent Muslim,” Yusufu Mieraili, one of the two suspects, told the court. Mieraili asked the court to accelerate proceedings, as he had already spent six months in jail.
Mieraili and Adem Karadag, also known as Bilal Mohammed, heard the charges against them at a court in the Thai capital’s historic quarters. They arrived shackled and handcuffed with shaved heads and wearing beige Thai prison uniforms.
They faced 10 charges, including murder, premeditated murder and illegal possession of explosives.
Police said both men had confessed to having a role in the Aug. 17 explosion.
Karadag’s lawyer Schoochart Kanpai said on Tuesday that his client had never confessed.
“Defendant number 1 (Bilal Mohammed) came into the country on August 21 (2015), many days after the blast incident. The suspect denies all charges, as well as the last two charges that says he illegally entered the country in May 2015. So he now denies all charges,” he told reporters.
Schoochart said he had asked the court to look into his client’s allegations that he was tortured in custody.
“What the suspect said was that he was tortured as water was being poured up his nose, big dogs were barking beside him, and that he was threatened to be will be sent back to China. We have included all these points in the court papers,” he added.
The junta has said it was unlikely the two suspects were tortured while in military custody.
The next stage in the case will take place on April 20-22, when both sides will review evidence, a judge said in court.
No group claimed responsibility for the August attack, which Thai authorities have said was in retaliation for a crackdown on human smuggling gangs and not a terrorist attack.
But some security experts say the bomb was in retaliation for Thailand’s forced repatriation of more than 100 Uighurs to China in July rather than in response to a crackdown on human smuggling gangs.
China has long faced criticism for the restrictions it places on religion and culture in Xinjiang, where the majority of Uighurs live.
Police said in December that two other suspects wanted in connection with the bomb had been arrested abroad and that Thailand was in the process of requesting their extradition.
Since then, there has been no progress in bringing the two suspects to Thailand and Thai police said this week they were unsure of the suspects’ whereabouts.
Police have issued warrants for 17 people in connection with the attack. Fifteen of those wanted are still at large.