Police: Political motive behind grenades thrown at Criminal Court

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BANGKOK, 4 March 2014  Police indicated political motive was behind another grenade attack at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd., which is linked to the earlier M79 grenade attacks at the Civil Court and the Criminal Court. 

It took the Explosives Ordnance Disposal officials over an hour to recover an unexploded M61 grenade from the parking lot for judges at the Criminal Court. The area was then cordoned off. The recovered grenade was one of the two grenades lobbed into the Criminal Court on Monday. The other grenade fell onto the footpath beside the perimeter of the court’s compound and exploded; slightly damaging the footpath.

According to Royal Thai Police Deputy Commissioner Ek Angsananon, soldiers guarding the entrance to the compound indicated the assailants were two men on a Yamaha Fino motorcycle. The perpetrators are believed to have planned the attack extensively, and the attackers can likely be linked to the earlier M79 grenade attacks on the civil and criminal courts.

Thongchai Senamontri, Criminal Court chief judge, said such an attack should not have occurred now that the political crisis had begun to resolve.