Thai lawyer confirms client confessed to planting bomb

By CS Thana

BANGKOK

The lawyer for a man accused of planting a bomb that killed 20 people in central Bangkok says his client has now admitted to carrying out the Aug. 17 attack.

Choochart Khanphai told reporters Wednesday that during an early morning meeting with Adem Karadag - who Khanphai refers to as Bilal Mohammed - his client had "voluntarily confessed" to being the "yellow shirted man" who figured in CCTV footage at the scene of the explosion.

The bomb at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine killed 20 people and injured over 100.

Khanphai said his client was acting on the orders of Abudusataer Abudureheman - also known as Ishaan - who police have alleged was the mastermind of the operation and still remains at large.

Khanphai had earlier said that his client had claimed that he was not even in the country at the time of the attack,

“My client has said he arrived in Thailand on August 21, days after the bombing,” he told Anadolu Agency on Sep. 25.

"Muhammed was passing though Thailand to Malaysia, where he was looking for a job," he added, saying his client knew "nothing whatsoever about the bombing".

Muhammed had also claimed to be a Turkish citizen, saying he had lived in Istanbul for a decade, and had told his lawyer that he was found with a fake Turkish passport bearing his image as under Turkish immigration law he could not leave the country for 20 years.

On Wednesday, the lawyer said his client had admitted that this was not true.

He has confessed to being a Uighur Muslim from China, and not actually Turkish as he had previously claimed, he said.

Khanphai said that he has asked for a Uighur speaking translator to accompany him to future meetings as Muhammed is unable to communicate in English or Turkish.

He did note, however, that a confession plea could still be changed when his client next attends court.