Police are questioning four people accused of involvement in the grenade attack last week at the Criminal Court’s car park, after the army handed the suspects over on Friday.
Motorcycle driver Mahahin Khunthong and alleged grenade thrower Yutthana Yenpinyo were yesterday taken for a re-enactment of the May 7 grenade attack on the Criminal Court’s car park on Ratchadaphisek Road. (Photo by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)
An additional ongoing probe into their alleged links to the previous Siam Paragon walkway blasts on Feb 1 is also under way.
So far it appears the suspects are part of the same network who launched the two Paragon pipe-bomb blasts because they share a "similar ideology", national police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpunmuang said.
Pol Gen Somyot on Friday interrogated the four suspects and is now preparing to interview six alleged accomplices, who are being held at an undisclosed military detention centre under martial law.
“We expect the military to hand over the six suspects by Sunday [tomorrow],” Pol Gen Somyot told reporters at a press conference.
The army needed to interrogate them before the police investigation can proceed because the military plays the leading role in overseeing national security, and must keep society in line after the coup, said Pol Gen Somyot.
Police will use the information obtained from the military interrogation to further investigate the suspects, he said.
The four suspected culprits, who are accused of throwing a RDG-5 grenade into the court’s car park on Mar 7, are: Mahahin Khunthong, who allegedly drove the motorcycle, Yutthana Yenpinyo, the pillion rider who allegedly threw the grenade, and two women — Nattapat Onming and Thachapan Pokkhrong — accused of colluding in the attack.
Three of the four — Mr Mahahin, Mr Yutthana and Ms Nattapat — allegedly admitted to their offences while Ms Thachapan denied any involvement, Pol Gen Somyot said after questioning them. Mr Mahahin and Mr Yutthana were later taken to the scene to re-enact their alleged crime.
He said, police investigators found that Ms Thachapan is Mr Yutthana’s wife and she was present when the suspects plotted the bomb attack.
Pol Gen Somyot declined to say whether the suspects were connected with the pro-Thaksin red-shirt group, saying only they were “misled into instigating violence” to draw attention from the United Nations and encourage international intervention in Thai politics.
However, police suspect one of the six alleged attackers detained by the military might have played a role in the red-shirt protests against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government in 2010, in which war weapons were used. The suspect, identified only as "Dear", is accused of being the mastermind behind the March 7 bombing.
The use of RDG-5 grenades links the two events together, Pol Gen Somyot said, but as these are only the early findings, further investigation is needed to prove the theory.
The evidence currently only incriminates Ms Dear in past political violence, as there is no proof the other five suspects were ever involved in previous political violence.
However, it is still unclear whether Ms Dear was following orders or acting of her own accord.
First army chief Lt Gen Kampanat Rutdit, who oversees a military force assigned to maintain societal order, said the attack appears to be perpetrated by “some people who play an active role abroad”.
Ms Dear and the other five suspects — Nares Intharasopha, 32, Sansern Sri-oonreun, 63, Wichai Yusuk, 49, Chanwit Jariyanukul, 61, and Veerasak Towangjorn— are being questioned by the military over their alleged links to the grenade plot hatched in Khon Kaen.
Soldiers have also been granted warrants from the military court for the arrest of another two men identified only as Bas and Wit, said Metropolitan Police Division 6 chief Pol Maj Gen Chayaphon Chatchaidet on Friday.
