Daily Times

BANGKOK: A Thai military court has indicted two men accused of carrying out a Bangkok bomb attack that killed 20 people including 14 foreigners, making it the deadliest such incident in Thai history.

A lawyer for one of the men said a Bangkok military court brought ten charges against the pair on Tuesday, including premeditated murder, illegal possession of weapons and murder for the bombing in August.

“The court has accepted the ten charges that prosecutors formally brought against the two men,” said lawyer Schoochart Kanpai.

The two were named as Bilal Mohammad and Mierali Yusufu.

Documents sent by prosecutors to the court said both men were Chinese nationals from the Uighur minority.

The attack at the Erawan Shrine, a major landmark in the heart of Bangkok, injured more than 120 people.

Thai police have said that the blast was revenge for a crackdown on human trafficking. They ruled out any link to the repatriation of 109 Muslim Uighur people to China in July.

The Uighur are a Turkic-language speaking group that calls China’s western Xinjian region home. Some Turks see themselves as sharing cultural and religious bond with their Uighur “brothers”.

The Uighur issue is sensitive for the Thai government and any link between the bomb and the deportation of people at China’s behest could expose it to censure that its foreign policy led to the bomb attack.

Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, say they flee China’s Xinjiang region due to persecution. Beijing rejects that.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a daily news briefing said he hoped the trial would bring “the offenders to justice and allows them to receive due punishment.”

Mohammad and Yusufu have been held at an army base in Bangkok since their arrests in August and September.

The motive for the bombing remains unclear and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police have released arrest warrants for 17 people over charges stemming from the Bangkok attack but say many have fled abroad.

Schoochart said interpreters were being arranged for both suspects as they could not communicate with interpreters provided by police. The charges were being translated from Thai into English, he said, and the men will formally hear the charges against them on Feb. 16.

Refugees sent back: Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday said two registered refugees were deported to China, at Beijing’s request, after they entered Thailand illegally.

The U.N. refugee agency said Thailand should not have sent the men back to a country where their lives could be put in danger, and Prayuth is the most senior official to comment on the controversy.

When they were arrested by the Thai authorities on Oct. 28, Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping both held a U.N. protection letter and were waiting to go to Canada, having been accepted as refugees.

“They violated immigration law and after checking we found that there was an arrest warrant from the source country,” Prayuth said, alluding to China.

“They asked us to send them back and we had to send according to procedure,” he added.

“What was said about protection from UNHCR – we did not know about that,” Prayuth said, referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

He said China had undertaken to ensure the deported mens’ rights were not violated.

“We told the source country that if they take them they have to look after them and not violate human rights and they gave their word,” Prayuth said.

The Canadian Embassy in Bangkok said it was not in a position to comment on the case.

Thailand deported about 100 Uighur Muslims to China in July, drawing condemnation from the United States and others.

The Uighurs are a Turkic-language speaking group from China’s western Xinjiang region.

Thai immigration officials said the two deported men were not Uighurs.

Thailand’s generals have sought warmer ties with Beijing since seizing power a coup in May, 2014, as the United States had criticized the coup.

On Thursday and Friday, the Chinese and Thai air forces will conduct their first joint exercises. China has said the exercises are aimed at increasing “mutual trust and friendship.”