The Bangkok South Criminal Court sentenced two defendants to death today, June 11, over the 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing at Ratchaprasong intersection, which killed 20 people and injured 160 others.
The court delivered its ruling in the case against Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili, both Uyghur nationals, who were charged by public prosecutors with terrorism-related offences and jointly carrying out the bombing.
At 12.50pm, the court sentenced both defendants to death, ruling that there were no grounds for leniency. The conviction was for jointly murdering others with premeditation.
After the verdict was read, Mieraili refused to accept the ruling and shouted inside the courtroom that he disagreed with the decision, reported ThaiPBS. He also said he mourned the loss of justice and insisted he did not commit the crime.
The bombing took place at about 6.55pm on August 17, 2015, when an explosion tore through the Erawan Shrine in front of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in one of Bangkok’s busiest shopping and tourist districts.
CCTV footage captured a man in a yellow shirt placing a bag, believed to contain the explosive device, on a bench inside the shrine compound. Moments later, the device was triggered.
Police later determined that the device contained roughly 3 kilogrammes of TNT.
The blast killed 20 people, including six Thai nationals and 14 foreign nationals. The foreign victims included five Chinese nationals, five Malaysians, two people from Hong Kong, one Indonesian, and one Singaporean.
A second device exploded the following day at Sathorn Pier but caused no casualties.
Just under two weeks after the bombing, police arrested Karadag at an apartment in Bangkok’s Nong Chok district on August 29, 2015.
A second suspect, Mieraili, was detained later. He was among more than 17 people implicated in the case.
Prosecutors charged the pair with causing an explosion that resulted in deaths.
A motive quickly emerged after the attack, which took place only weeks after Thai officials forcibly returned nearly 100 Uyghur Muslims to China. Thai officials have long believed the bombing was an act of revenge over that deportation.
The story Two sentenced to death over 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing as seen on Thaiger News.
