Bangkok (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Yusufu Mieraili has confessed to Thai police that he personally handed over the backpack containing the bomb to the man who then placed near the Erawan temple. The man (perhaps an ethnic Uyghur) was arrested last week on the border with Cambodia in the course of investigations into the bomb attack in Bangkok on August 17 last that killed 20 people and injured over a hundred.
Yesterday Mierailli also named the "mastermind" of the attack, saying he had been ordered to leave the bomb on a bench near the Hua Lamphong station, where the alleged perpetrator of the attack (the suspect in the yellow T-shirt) collected it. The arrested had at first denied having met the man, and yesterday, during a reconstruction on site with the police, he confessed to having personally handed over the explosive.
Prawut Thavornsiri, a police spokesman, told the press: "Yusufu said that the backpack he wore was heavy, and it contained a bomb." The suspect then confessed to the police that he had travelled directly to the station from an appartament on the outskirts of Bangkok, where police found his fingerprints, different chemical material and false passports. Authorities have not yet confirmed the nationalities of Mieraili, who when arrested had a Chinese passport.
Reconstructing crimes by leading suspects to the crime site is common practice in Thailand, but has been criticized because it implies the guilt of the accused before he has even been tried.
Meanwhile, the police is hunting the man who, according Mieraili, would be the "mastermind" of the attack and who left Thailand on the day before the explosion. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for 27 year old Abudureheman Abudusataer, known as "Izaan".