Foreigners with passing resemblance to Bangkok bomber under spotlight

[webfact]

BANGKOK BLAST
Foreigners with passing resemblance to Bangkok bomber under spotlight

BANGKOK - Swedish national Marcus Westberg was typing on his laptop when Thai police came knocking -- one of a handful of foreigners questioned because of their similar looks to the primary Bangkok bomb suspect.

Initially Westberg, who is visiting Thailand on holiday, thought the questioning on Tuesday afternoon in Bangkok was just part of a routine security check.

But then police asked him to account for his whereabouts on Monday evening, the same night a deadly bomb tore through a religious shrine in the centre of Bangkok killing 20 people and wounding more than 120 others.

"It was not until they asked to see my phone and started going through my photos that I considered that something might be wrong," he told AFP.

"They told me that I very much resembled their main suspect," he added.

Other foreigners have found themselves in a similar predicament since the deadly blast as police scramble to locate the suspect and any accomplices he may have had.

Most appear to have come under suspicion because they share a passing resemblance to a primary suspect, seen leaving a backpack under a bench at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok’s bustling shopping district just moments before the bomb went off.

A sketch of the alleged bomber released by Thai police, based on CCTV and witness descriptions, shows a young man dressed in a yellow t-shirt with dark shaggy hair, a suggestion of stubble and thick-rimmed glasses.

The same day Westberg was being questioned, an Australian model and aspiring actor called Sunny Burns posted a selfie on Instagram from inside a Thai police station.

He said he had handed himself into police after amateur Internet sleuths started posting his details online as a potential bomb suspect.

Multiple Thai news reporters also posted pictures on Wednesday evening of what they said was a dual French-Swiss national who was briefly detained on arrival at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. He too had shaggy hair and thick glasses.

Westberg, who has a beard and neck-length hair, said his encounter with Thai police was "fairly relaxed" and that officers showed "politeness and professionalism" throughout the one-hour conversation.

"We agreed that the man in the CCTV footage had shorter hair and much less of a beard than I, and after joking with me that perhaps I should get a haircut before venturing outside again they thanked me for my time and cooperation and apologised for any inconvenience," he said.

"It really was not until the next day that I began to reflect on how very differently this could have played out," he added, particularly when he started asking himself why he specifically had come under the spotlight.

"I later found out that it had been entirely by chance: a police officer had seen me earlier on Tuesday, thought that I resembled the suspect and alerted his colleagues," he said.

"That was a relief to find out, I will admit."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Foreigners-with-passing-resemblance-to-Bangkok-bom-30267146.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-21

[Thian]

Of course it's good that the Police investigates all foreigners in Thailand but i don't like the fact they publish all full names.

Publishing names has no function at all and might even damage the persons career/private life, now and in the future.

If i was a tourist planning to go to Thailand for holiday and looked similar to the bomber then i sure wouldn't come.

Respect our privacy please dear General!

[speedtripler]

Not good news - this basically confirms they have no idea who is responsible...

[ourmanflint]

And I was only half joking when in another thread I said all foreigners with curly hair would come under scrutiny. The worst type of policing ever imaginable.

[Briggsy]

I thought they knew the network who did it. The police chief, Somyot, announced it.

Maybe, he was just making it up.

[JHolmesJr]

Hehe….terrible from a PR perspective.

Thai copper: "PR…..what you say?"

[bdenner]

Of course it's good that the Police investigates all foreigners in Thailand but i don't like the fact they publish all full names.

Publishing names has no function at all and might even damage the persons career/private life, now and in the future.

If i was a tourist planning to go to Thailand for holiday and looked similar to the bomber then i sure wouldn't come.

Respect our privacy please dear General!

IMHO the arrest of this/these perpratator is far more important than any, one, individual's hysteria re his/her privacy.

There is some very good face recoginition software out there now and we all know paranoid the Thai Immigration Officers are that we look into the camera properly when doing business with them - Airports, offices etc. I hope it works!

Edited August 21, 2015 by bdenner

[Captain_Bob]

Who says he is necessarily a "foreigner"? Based on everything including the police sketch he could just as easily be Thai. Oh but "Thai would never do such a thing..." blah blah blah. Now any "foreigner" with floppy/bushy hair is a suspect. Hell, farang all look the same anyway, just detain/interrogate all of them.

[zaphod reborn]

When they detain some West Asian or Middle-Eastern Muslims, they'll be on the right track. All farang look the same to Thai, so RTP doesn't have a clue who to interrogate.

[Bluespunk]

Of course it's good that the Police investigates all foreigners in Thailand but i don't like the fact they publish all full names.

Publishing names has no function at all and might even damage the persons career/private life, now and in the future.

If i was a tourist planning to go to Thailand for holiday and looked similar to the bomber then i sure wouldn't come.

Respect our privacy please dear General!

IMHO the arrest of this/these perpratator is far more important than any, one, individual's hysteria re his/her privacy.

There is some very good face recoginition software out there now and we all know paranoid the Thai Immigration Officers are that we look into the camera properly when doing business with them - Airports, offices etc. I hope it works!

If someone is stopped, questioned and then excluded from suspicion then there is no reason at all to publish their names.

[Bluespunk]

When they detain some West Asian or Middle-Eastern Muslims, they'll be on the right track. All farang look the same to Thai, so RTP doesn't have a clue who to interrogate.

They should be questioning people on their resemblance to the CCTV image.

Not nationality and certainly not faith.

From that image the guy could be foreign but could also very well be Thai.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Bluespunk

[Choonpon]

Looking at the picture of the suspect, the police shouldn't focus their search on foreigners only.

[Lingba]

I think whoever did it s been knocked off already...dead men tell no tales

[LannaGuy]

The worst thing is Britain offered help, with all their knowledge of bombings, IRA etc. and the General turned them down

how dumb is that? djjamie is very quiet maybe he's finally waking up and smelling the coffee

[kurttz]

One thing is sure...the swine or swines are still here...

[CMguy]

My deepest sympathies go out to the victims and their families of this tragedy event.

Some people might say " investigation without adequate critical thinking skills is futile" I am sure they have at least considered that if the fugitive still remained in the country, they likely would have altered their appearance, i.e. cut and (or) colored their hair, shaved, etc. Any "guilty" person with a detectable IQ would have likely changed their look as fast as they threw away the yellow t shirt....at least some people might think that.

[kurttz]

Thai police do not have to indulge anything ....

[ldiablo]

@LannaGuy. It's highly unlikely.

[lildragon]

So rhey want us to believe that Thaksin hired a farang to do this. The farang of course then didn't flee Thailand but stayed here lording it up.

Seriously?

[zaphod reborn]

When they detain some West Asian or Middle-Eastern Muslims, they'll be on the right track. All farang look the same to Thai, so RTP doesn't have a clue who to interrogate.

They should be questioning people on their resemblance to the CCTV image.

Not nationality and certainly not faith.

From that image the guy could be foreign but could also very well be Thai.

"RT@dicklp: EXCLUSIVE in @thetimes: Thai police seek man named ‘Mohamad Museyin’ #BangkokBomb https://t.co/sAsHctS7Xu"

Mohamad Museyin doesn't sound Thai to me. Sounds like a Turkish Muslim.

[alocacoc]

This guy looks suspect to me.

Edited August 21, 2015 by PoorSucker
Picture from re-enactment removed, please do not confuse people.

[PS2]

All falang look the same.

[Always18]

Many will be familiar with the expression "Ni$$er in the woodpile" - well, don't forget chaps, that in The Land Of Scapegoats all us foreigners are just that.................

[Bluespunk]

When they detain some West Asian or Middle-Eastern Muslims, they'll be on the right track. All farang look the same to Thai, so RTP doesn't have a clue who to interrogate.

They should be questioning people on their resemblance to the CCTV image.

Not nationality and certainly not faith.

From that image the guy could be foreign but could also very well be Thai.

"RT@dicklp: EXCLUSIVE in @thetimes: Thai police seek man named Mohamad Museyin #BangkokBomb https://t.co/sAsHctS7Xu"

Mohamad Museyin doesn't sound Thai to me. Sounds like a Turkish Muslim.

I never said exclude non Thais.

i said search for those who resemble the cctv Image/picture.

Base search for this scumbag on that rather than just certain nationalities or faiths.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Bluespunk

[RobertHima]

After all the record trail foreigners must leave when they are in Thailand - photo taken at entry, when leaving, every year when extending visa, reporting every 90 days with address - I would think it is quite easy to round up all foreigners resembling the sketch. I would not dare saying face recognition software, but maybe a few thousand officers or volunteers clicking through the images?

[ezzra]

This is the only time that being old fat and ugly is a comfort to me not looking like the bomber....

[jed2002]

The guy left Bangkok since long time....

[MaxLee]

That's a symbolic pinnacle of the RTP's scapegoat hunt

[Reigntax]

@LannaGuy. It's highly unlikely.

Ill second that. He is currently preparing a troll post to implicate Thaksin but is just waiting for his boss's approval from within the junta's spindoctor ministry

[jonclark]

We probably all look the same to the average Thai Policeman