BANGKOK, Feb 16 – Thailand’s Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for four Iranians on varied charges concerning Tuesday’s Bangkok bomb incidents as sought by police.
Court approval followed police submissions of photos of the suspects captured on closed circuit television, explosive devices seized from their rented house and the testimony of eyewitnesses.
The Thai authorities are holding two Iranian suspects arrested earlier — Saeid Moradi, 28, who lost his legs from his own explosive device– and another suspect, Mohammad Hazaei, 42, who was taken into custody at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday while attempting to board a plane to Malaysia.
A third Iranian identified as Masoud Sedaghatzadeh was arrested on Wednesday by Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur.
A fourth person, an Iranian woman identified as Rohani Leila, is still at large. She is suspected of having arranged to rent the Sukhumvit Soi 71 home where the first explosive device exploded, apparently by accident.
Mr Moradi faces five charges including joint assembling of explosive devices, joint possession of explosive devices without permits, causing an explosion injuring other persons, attempted killing of state officials on duty and the intentional attempted killing of other persons.
The first three charges on outstanding warrants were also pressed against all three Iranians.
Pol Gen Pansiri Prapawat, deputy national police chief overseeing the case, on Thursday called a full-team meeting for the first time consisting of the investigators from the Metropolitan Police, the Crime Suppression Department, the Immigration Bureau, and the Special Branch Police, as well as experts from the Scientific Crime Detection Division and the military’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit.
The senior police officer pledged that an in-depth investigation will shed light on how the incident took place, the frequency of the suspects’ visit to Thailand, the origin of the explosives and who imported the explosive devices as well as how and where they assembled the explosives.
Gen Pansiri said that Klong Tan Police Station was assigned as the investigation centre and that meetings will be held daily to follow up the operations.
