Bangkok Bomb Suspect Arrested

[Nickymaster]

The arrest was made after about 100 police and troops surrounded the apartment at at 1:30 pm.

It's a given fact that Thai cops are inept ... but needing 100 to arrest one man? Hilarious.

Boring comment. And what would have been your comment if the guy would have escaped? The guy rented multiple rooms so there could have been a lot of people involved. It could have been a large gang hiding in that apartment block.

[Fat Haggis]

To me, the big question is: what was the motive?

If the evidence was planted by police to scapegoat another foreigner--who can't defend themselves in Thai courts, then there will be little mention of motive. Just get it done and out of the news. But if this is the real bad guy, one would think they would discover some sort of motive, and perhaps links to others who may have helped. So far, no international group has claimed responsibility--which is unusual. I can't think of any particular problems between Turkey and Thailand that might have motivated, but maybe they exist.

If this is not the real guy, then the perps will feel like they got away with it and you can be sure they will strike again.

If this is the real bad guy, what was the motive?

Give yourself peace with this scapegoat rubbish.

National police chief General Somyot Poompunmuang became obviously annoyed yesterday when a reporter asked him if the arrested man happened to be a scapegoat. He said such a question was "not constructive".

Can't you just accept that the Thai Police have done a great job apprehending this scumbag.

The photokit was spot on as far as I can see when you allow for the fact the guy probably hasn't eaten or slept for a week in fear of being caught.

If you care to read what has been said his motive was personal.

Like all good investigators they are not prepared to commit to definite statements until they know the whole truth.

Nothing unusual about that.

which is what the RTP have been doing since day1

[JAG]

The arrest was made after about 100 police and troops surrounded the apartment at at 1:30 pm.

It's a given fact that Thai cops are inept ... but needing 100 to arrest one man? Hilarious.

Well you would need quite a lot of bods to quietly set up up a secure cordon around the target building, secure access routes, guard the sewers, have a quick reaction force standing by in case anything went wrong and so on.

On the other hand maybe lots an lots of senior people in the RTP wanted to be in on the act - basking in reflected glory and so on...

[LannaGuy]

Renting multiple rooms in the same block in a Muslim area of the city is suspicious. Having multiple fake Turkish passports is more than suspicious. I wander if this fellow was part of a set up to move Uighurs fleeing China to Turkey? Some sort of underground route would have become necessary once Thailand started returning them to China.

The Chinese security services would probably have known about it. I don't suppose they would mind on what pretext it was closed down.

This chap would have been in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Just a thought....

Your comment makes a lot of sense JAG, renting multiple rooms, passports etc, but it is also possible that he is connected with the bombing.

If he is found guilty of the bombing it sounds like there will be a lot of disappointed posters on TVF. Many of them would rather be bagging the RTP for their incompetence, than praising them for solving this latest crime.

'solving'? didn't the landlord report it? good news anyway but hardly a reason for praising the RTP for 'solving' the case when someone phoned in. Very glad if they have got him however they managed it.

[keemapoot]

The arrest was made after about 100 police and troops surrounded the apartment at at 1:30 pm.

It's a given fact that Thai cops are inept ... but needing 100 to arrest one man? Hilarious.

Boring comment. And what would have been your comment if the guy would have escaped? The guy rented multiple rooms so there could have been a lot of people involved. It could have been a large gang hiding in that apartment block.

With 5 rooms rented by this guy, sure we can assume others were involved, perhaps many as well as material, if he did rent them all in his name, and then stayed hunkered down there under all this heat, we might draw the assumption that he was always intended to be the "fall guy," and that he even signed up for that with the group, allowing all the others to escape.

[vogie]

Scapegoat written all over this arrest. Don't believe it.

That's cleared that one up then. Time to tackle your next assignment.

[halloween]

Your comment makes a lot of sense JAG, renting multiple rooms, passports etc, but it is also possible that he is connected with the bombing.

If he is found guilty of the bombing it sounds like there will be a lot of disappointed posters on TVF. Many of them would rather be bagging the RTP for their incompetence, than praising them for solving this latest crime.

'solving'? didn't the landlord report it? good news anyway but hardly a reason for praising the RTP for 'solving' the case when someone phoned in. Very glad if they have got him however they managed it.

Yes , solving it. Exactly as many crimes are solved by a member of the public reporting suspicion, police sorting out reported suspicions into reasonably credible, and then acting on it. What else did you expect?

[Kitsune]

A/ The two pictures don't really match, it does not look like the same person.

B/ If I am the guy that did the bombing last week, I would not go back to my room full of equipment, or I would have at least got rid of it all.

[jamesbrock]

The photokit was spot on as far as I can see when you allow for the fact the guy probably hasn't eaten or slept for a week in fear of being caught.

Except, as has been pointed out innumerable times, the police have stated repeatedly that they do not think the man arrested yesterday is the man in the photofit.

[kiwikeith]

Well done RTP, after unprecedented criticism, it looks like they have actually done a very good job. We all wanted this guy caught.

I always thought the police picture was miles off from what i could make of the CCTV images and to me the body profile of this guy looks similar to the suspect in the cctv especially the leg shape so I hope they got their man and my guess is Grey Wolf.

[F4UCorsair]

Maybe the Erawan bomber was wearing some kind of disguise that day.

But to my eyes, the guy caught today as shown doesn't seem to much resemble the suspected Erawan bomber shown in the blurry CCTV photos. Or at least he certainly got a hair cut between then and now.

The police may indeed have caught someone involved in the bomb plot. But whether this guy is the one who actually did the Erawan bombing is an entirely different issue.

The TV news I watched in Melbourne this morning said that he was arrested in connection with the Erawan bombing, but implied that he may not have been the actual person in the CCTV pics.

If so, that's why some may not see any resemblance. Another possibility is that he was wearing a wig and glasses with no beard growth.

Having said that, we tend to believe the press when they report what we think we may want to hear, but disregard it at other times. We ALL do it.

Edited August 30, 2015 by F4UCorsair

[orosee]

Man I HATE the way big threads on ThaiVisa tend to play out.

For the first 3 pages, starting with an OP that contains incomplete or incorrect information, there's the usual mix of trolls and bashers and a small number of diligent posters pointing out inconsistencies in the OP.

Pages 5 to 10, the OP finally gets corrected and/or updated so by then, there's enough data to give a clear picture of what's going on, some valuable posts appear that add information that's missing from the OP or that is pertinent but missing from the OP, and the usual mix of trolls and bashers stating "Thainess", "Burmese scapegoats", "The Man In Dubai" and other witless one-liners that stopped being funny not less than 3-6 months ago. But in general, this is where the thread develops real information value, until...

Pages 11 to Last, posters who just woke up, live in a remote time zone or just recharged their phones after the batteries ran out in a bar at 2AM, start commenting on posts on pages 1 to 5 which by then have long since been corrected, refuted, explained, withdrawn... basically anyone who's not yet operating at 100% brain capacity and all those who don't give a damn about how an internet forum is supposed to work. From this point, all the new and relevant information gets buried under an avalanche of redundant, irrelevant and repetitive "discoveries", questions, etc. - a full repeat of things completed on pages 1 to the current. Bad enough, but...

Pages 15 to Last, well-meaning but ill-advised posters actually reply to the late risers, often just with "read the thread" - in some cases, many replies to the same post. Now the post/page count is spiraling out of control, and for every original and informational update or new contribution, there's 10+ of these "static noise" messages that frequently lead to an entire page not containing a single bit of new or valuable info. At some point, only a fresh thread "continued from" is able to return the topic briefly to a readable state. However...

New thread, page1 to current: Lots of half-brains posting who never read the preceding thread, which basically makes any important follow-up the proverbial needle in the haystack.

-------------------------

Yeah, I see the irony in that my post is also more noise than signal. But after reading 26 pages of this thread, I felt the urge to write it.

I wish ThaiVisa had a system that would assign a moderator to any thread longer than 5 pages, a person specifically assigned to delete the noise. Or an algorithm that blocks the "reply/post" button unless at least 80% of the existing pages have been visited (hey, they can do this for EULAs so why not here?).

[MZurf]

To me, the big question is: what was the motive?

If the evidence was planted by police to scapegoat another foreigner--who can't defend themselves in Thai courts, then there will be little mention of motive. Just get it done and out of the news. But if this is the real bad guy, one would think they would discover some sort of motive, and perhaps links to others who may have helped. So far, no international group has claimed responsibility--which is unusual. I can't think of any particular problems between Turkey and Thailand that might have motivated, but maybe they exist.

If this is not the real guy, then the perps will feel like they got away with it and you can be sure they will strike again.

If this is the real bad guy, what was the motive?

Give yourself peace with this scapegoat rubbish.

National police chief General Somyot Poompunmuang became obviously annoyed yesterday when a reporter asked him if the arrested man happened to be a scapegoat. He said such a question was "not constructive".

Can't you just accept that the Thai Police have done a great job apprehending this scumbag.

The photokit was spot on as far as I can see when you allow for the fact the guy probably hasn't eaten or slept for a week in fear of being caught.

If you care to read what has been said his motive was personal.

Like all good investigators they are not prepared to commit to definite statements until they know the whole truth.

Nothing unusual about that.

"Like all good investigators.."

Wow. You really should stay away from the lao khao in the morning!

[metisdead]

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed.

[Heng]

Yeah, it's not the same guy. He's not wearing glasses nor was he caught wearing a yellow shirt.

[BeefSlapper]

Scapegoat written all over this arrest. Don't believe it.

That's cleared that one up then. Time to tackle your next assignment.

Well why they show suicide vest on tv and says its from his apartament and then when people figure out its from 2013 raid they say anyone who dhares it will be prosecuted.

Thats means other evidence can be faked too isn't it?

[mikemac]

I take back what I wrote earlier about there not being a possible motive for Turks to do this. However I really really find it very unsettling that after the arrest a police official again said something to the effect of "we know the perpetrator wasn't Thai, because a Thai couldn't do something like this" exactly what was said after the Brits being killed in Koh Tao. I and I know many other find that very disturbing and questionable...

I agree, probably after being in and out of Thailand since 2005 I know full well what Thai people are capable of doing to one another. No different to any other country.

And surely the RTP are aware of what the reds and yellows did to one another, especially in the years 2010 & 2014. They should know, they stood by and watched most of it.

[yellow1red1]

If some Turk wanted to carry out a terrorist attack, they'd carry it out on Kurds, not Thais. I call this BS

Scissors, duct tape, I have them at my home too.

Wrong, he may linked to the Grey Wolves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves_(organization)

or Uighur and wanted to make thailand and china pay for the past deportation....

But for the evidence yes I am still waiting more

"In the late 1970s, former military prosecutor and Turkish Supreme Court Justice Emin Değer documented collaboration between the Grey Wolves" and Counter-Guerrilla—the Turkish stay-behind anti-communist organization, part of NATO planning which was supposed to prepare networks for guerrilla warfare in case of a Soviet invasion—and the Central Intelligence Agency ***(CIA)***. Martin Lee writes that "the Counter-Guerrilla Organization supplied weapons to the Gray Wolves",^[5] According to Tim Jacoby, the ***CIA*** "overtly transferred guns and explosives to Grey Wolf units through its agent, Frank Terpil" in the 1970s.^[105]

^***CIA***

[Solomon]

Well done Junta

Not content with stripping the Thai people of their rights, freedom and voices and driving the nations economy into the ditch - they're ineptitude at governing the country has now piled more misery upon its long suffering citizenry by unnecessarily inviting international terrorism to these shores by their repulsive and shameful treatment of Uighur refuges.

[tethered goat]

I wish all those posters shouting "scapegoat" would look at the bigger picture. If there was going to be a scapegoat manufactured to make this all go away then the very last area to choose would be the Turkish connection. I imagine Prayut has been lying in bed at night praying this this horrible act did not have anything to do with him giving the finger to the international community, then breaking international law and sending Uighur people seeking refugee status in Turkey back to China.He could just as easily put them on a plane to Turkey, but he didn't.He said they are not my problem, and sent them back to detention , torture or death. Well it seems it is turning out to be his problem. The loss of face is almost incalcuable if this is some revenge attack caused by his arrogant intransigence .

[yellow1red1]

CNN UPDATE: Thai police now say the man they have arrested is not the main suspect -- seen here in the sketch -- but they believe he was involved: CNN - 16 hours ago, report he's not the bomber, but involved.

Also, the police said Nationality cannot be determined, because the passport were all fake ones.

[F4UCorsair]

Re post # 656, just four posts back.

Maybe the BiB aren't as stupid or ineffective as some suggest. The 'phone data led them to this guy.

I still advocate letting this run its course, with no accusations of competency or incompetency.

I'm amazed that so many have first hand knowledge of the competency/incompetency of the RTP....or is it hearsay? Read it, take is as gospel, and worse, propagate it via Thai Visa??

Edited August 30, 2015 by F4UCorsair

[jamesbrock]

<Edit: Link to image removed>

Phone data yeh right

A tip-off yesterday, phone data today. I wonder if that's a ruse to get out of paying the reward?

Edited August 30, 2015 by jamesbrock

[metisdead]

A post containing content from Bangkok Post has been removed:

26) The Bangkok Post and Phuketwan do not allow quotes from their news articles or other material to appear on Thaivisa.com. Neither do they allow links to their publications. Posts from members containing quotes from or links to Bangkok Post or Phuketwan publications will be deleted from the forum.

[chrisinth]

"Police acted on a tip from the landlord who owned the apartment that the suspect was renting, according to a police source who declined to be named. The landlord grew suspicious because the suspect did not speak Thai and rented five rooms on the same floor of the apartment building, since late July. Local residents told reporters that the suspect had been living in the apartment for two weeks before the Erawan blast."

So... one wonders how long it took for the apartment owner to report this... ? And how long for police to act... ?

"So... one wonders how long it took for the apartment owner to report this... ? And how long for police to act... ?"

It is a very good question, not sure if it was written with sarcasm in mind?

If the police/military have known about this place for a time, even though they are under extreme pressure to come up with a suspect, they would surely have had it under observation, recording comings & goings and building a solid case. That would be the normal. Perhaps something has happened and they have now raided for closure of this location?

There was an earlier announcement (stupidly announced IMO) by the authorities that they plan to raid another 7 locations. Perhaps information amassed through observation?

Throughout this entire incident (and many, many others), it has been plain to see that a lot of people are of the belief that all information needs to be published on the internet or presented on the media as it happens. That everybody should be privy to all facts and operation being run. This is disillusioned thought.

If this arrest came about through information received and covert observation by the police, then it is a job well done IMO.

Big if though.....................

[Carmine6]

Scapegoat written all over this arrest. Don't believe it.

That's cleared that one up then. Time to tackle your next assignment.

Well why they show suicide vest on tv and says its from his apartament and then when people figure out its from 2013 raid they say anyone who dhares it will be prosecuted.

Thats means other evidence can be faked too isn't it?

Unless someone fluent in Thai saw the broadcast, and can confirm that they said it was from the apartment, I don't think that's what happened. A Thai website had an account of what was reported and the Google tanslate said something like, they found canvas and other materials that could be used to make a suicide vest. That website has removed that part today so can't double check it.

The picture didn't match that description since it obviously wasn't just materials. I was actually going to download and post it but didn't because the picture didn't look right. Plus didn't match the description, though couldn't be sure with Google translate.

I think they gave a picture as an illustration of what was meant by suicide vest. There's no reason for someone to have written canvas and materials to make, in the article if the broadcast had said they found a vest.

So did anyone actually see the broadcast and them claim that vest was found in the apartment? Or was it a picture shown during the broadcast?

[chainarong]

Just thinking outside the box. I've just blow the hell out of a public place killing and maiming a lot of people. CCTV catches my escape. I've had days to get the heck out of Dodge. Why I'm I still in my room with a bunch of materials that could be used for bomb making. Personally, especially considering the media was saying there was not a good CCTV coverage, I'd be in a different country, and back to whatever sick terror cell I came from. But no! The "Suspect" stays. Like one of the previous posters said. Wait and see.

Coming from another country how are you able to get your hands on explosives, without Thai's helping..

[bamukloy]

IMG_20150830_085934.jpg

Phone data yeh right

3rd column along in news article..

interesting that the police chief words have been translated three different ways. First, having him say the question is not creative, in another..not constructive, and in the article has him saying..not helpfull.

A lesson for a lot of silly posters who scrutinize words reported in the media as if the person reported had actually spoken the english words.

anyway, for mine, the reporter who asked the scapegoat question should be given a medal. Might not have been the wisest thing, but in speaking up, he/she is telling the powers that the social media era is well and truely here, That Thais are getting more savvy and arent gonna swallow the usual khrap and shut up and be good little sheeple.

Makes me wonder though, if the bear gets poked enough, how long it will be before the dinosaurs get serious about trying to stop social media.

Of course theres no way they can seriously do that accross the board, but im sure a few of them have the arrogance and mentality to think they can.

Interesting also in the chiefs response to the reporters question "are you Thai?"

in other words..no thai would dare question him.

and then asks what publication he/she is from. (Hmm)

Kind of speaks volumes doesnt it?

Edited August 30, 2015 by bamukloy

[Rorri]

Well they were under pressure to arrest somebody... anybody. Now they just have to plant and fabricate evidence. Case solved.

Dont be so insulting to the dead

Insulting to the RTP, maybe... insulting to the dead.... man, how did you come to that coclusion.

[chrisinth]

Renting multiple rooms in the same block in a Muslim area of the city is suspicious. Having multiple fake Turkish passports is more than suspicious. I wander if this fellow was part of a set up to move Uighurs fleeing China to Turkey? Some sort of underground route would have become necessary once Thailand started returning them to China.

The Chinese security services would probably have known about it. I don't suppose they would mind on what pretext it was closed down.

This chap would have been in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Just a thought....

Your comment makes a lot of sense JAG, renting multiple rooms, passports etc, but it is also possible that he is connected with the bombing.

If he is found guilty of the bombing it sounds like there will be a lot of disappointed posters on TVF. Many of them would rather be bagging the RTP for their incompetence, than praising them for solving this latest crime.

True enough, it just seems (to me at least) strange that the bomber were switched on enough to cover their tracks by switching vehicles, wearing disguises etc, made no claims of responsibility, yet were silly enough to leave bomb making kit lying around!

I too would like to believe that the RTP have solved this. You are I suspect wise enough in the ways of this astonishing country to understand my skepticism. The hard line RTP bashers would have been in denial if a traffic cop had knocked the escaping bomber off the motorcycle 30 seconds after the explosion! This just seems too neat, and I don't buy into the theory that all the high level buffoonery was a bluff to lull the bomber into a false sense of security!

I don't suppose we will ever know for certain.

Another thing you would need to ask is if the rooms were occupied throughout, or did they wait until someone was on site before raiding?

Ie, was there a food and water stash inside the rooms? If not, and the suspect was there the entire time, how did he feed himself? Did he go out? Did someone bring him food & water?

Was this movement (if any) being observed and recorded? They must have known someone was in before launching the raid.

Edited August 30, 2015 by chrisinth