{"id":2824,"date":"2015-09-07T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thediplomaticenvoy.com\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2020-02-05T15:16:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:16:01","slug":"corruption-stalls-bangkok-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/09\/07\/corruption-stalls-bangkok-bombing\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption Stalls Bangkok Bombing Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Isla Lamont<\/a>
\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s Chief of Police Somyot Poompanmoung has promised to reward\u00a0his own men with an $83,000 prize\u00a0for capturing a suspect in the Erawan Shrine bombing.<\/p>\n

BBC reports that during a press conference on August 31, Mr.\u00a0Poompanmoung publicly displayed three large bundles of banknotes, for which he has received\u00a0criticism. He defended his actions, saying that his men had worked with no tips and apprehended the suspect in the bombings through their own investigative skills.<\/p>\n

Despite the prize,\u00a0authorities are not sure that the man captured, a 28-year-old foreigner, is the main perpetrator in the bombings. There are still arrest warrants out for two other accomplices. According to BBC, Thai police said that they do not believe the apprehended\u00a0man\u00a0is the suspect\u00a0seen in CCTV footage at the shrine moments\u00a0before the explosion.<\/p>\n

Police are still searching for a Thai woman, Wanna Saunsan, and another unnamed foreign man.<\/p>\n

The shrine was located at the Ratchaprasong intersection of the capital, near a hotel, shopping center, and public transit system. It received\u00a0thousands of tourists, mostly Chinese, and local visitors daily.\u00a0The explosive was a pipe bomb with over six pounds of TNT wrapped in a white cloth. The explosion killed 20 people and injured more than 120.<\/p>\n

Bomb-making materials, including fertilizer bags, gun powder, watches, and radio controls, were found by Thai police in the apprehended suspect\u2019s home, and in a second apartment linked to the other two fugitives. Police spokesperson Prawut Thavornsiri said, “Nobody would keep [these materials] unless they wanted to make a bomb.”<\/p>\n

Thai police stated that they have ruled out international terrorism. Their information was reportedly\u00a0gathered through\u00a0domestic intelligence, as well as consultations with allied countries, including the United States. No international terror organizations have stepped forward to claim responsibility.<\/p>\n

Poompanmoung’s\u00a0police force received further\u00a0criticism for mishandling the crime scene. The popular temple in downtown Bangkok remained unsealed for several hours after the explosion, allowing access to\u00a0the crime scene and potential tampering. The crater produced\u00a0by the explosion\u00a0was cemented over, eradicating the possibility of\u00a0future forensic work. In a statement made after the attack, Chief Poompanmoung stated that the group\u00a0responsible included ten\u00a0or more individuals.<\/p>\n

The suspects apprehended and named in the\u00a0search are one native and two foreigners. Due to the apparent lack of political motivation and the overwhelming carnage of an\u00a0attack on\u00a0a Buddhist nation, public opinion in Thailand sustains that the bombing\u00a0was the work of foreigners with unconfirmed motives. One theory is that the Muslim Uighur, a small minority group originally from China, were behind the attack, in response to the recent deportation to China of Uighur refugees by the Thai government.<\/p>\n

[Security analyst: Grey Wolves were behind the Erawan Shrine bombing<\/a>]<\/p>\n

According to a report by the Associated Press, a 2013 survey by the anti-corruption group Transparency International<\/a> found that 71% of local respondents judged the Thai police as corrupt or extremely corrupt, due in large part to the low pay received by officers. Earlier this year, the police force was suspected of using torture to force a false confession out of two immigrants regarding\u00a0the murder of two British tourists, setting a\u00a0precedent of false police work for the sake of pacifying tourists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thailand\u2019s Chief of Police Somyot Poompanmoung has promised to reward his own men with an $83,000 prize for capturing a suspect in the Erawan Shrine bombing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,386],"tags":[430,498],"class_list":["post-2824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","category-asia","tag-thailand","tag-corruption"],"yoast_head":"\nCorruption Stalls Bangkok Bombing Investigation - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/09\/07\/corruption-stalls-bangkok-bombing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Corruption Stalls Bangkok Bombing Investigation - 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