Two plead not guilty to Bangkok bombing
Two
members of China's Muslim Uighur minority have pleaded innocent to
carrying out the deadly bombing of a Bangkok landmark last year.The two men - Bilal Mohammad, 31, and Mieraili Yusufu, 27 - face eight charges related to the bombing, including conspiracy to explode bombs and commit premeditated murder.
Twenty people, including 14 foreign tourists, were killed and more than 120 injured in the August attack, one of the deadliest acts of violence in Bangkok in decades.
The suspects made their first appearance on Tuesday at a military court in the case since November, when they were read the charges against them.
Bilal, also known as Adem Karadag - the name on a fake Turkish passport he was carrying when he was arrested - faces two additional charges of violating immigration law by entering Thailand illegally.
Both men told the court on Tuesday that they were Chinese citizens but members of the Uighur minority, from the city of Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang region.
Police are hunting for another 15 suspects in the case, but no progress has been announced.
Bilal's lawyer, Chuchart Kanpai, told reporters after the court session that his client said he had been tortured in late September, about three weeks after his arrest, to pressure him to admit that he was the person seen in surveillance video planting the bomb.
"He was tortured by officials. He didn't know if they were soldiers or police because they were non-uniformed," Chuchart said on Monday. "Back then, he confessed so that he wouldn't be tortured again. He was just saying it."
Bilal was arrested on August 29 at a Bangkok apartment, while Yusufu was arrested on September 1 near the Thai-Cambodia border.
The court announced on Tuesday that it had set April 20-22 for hearings to examine the evidence in the case.
Originally published as Two plead not guilty to Bangkok bombing
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