Showing posts with label Bomb suspect arrested. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bomb suspect arrested. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Suspect has notes on how to make bombs : police

July 7, 2010
THE NATION

Tips on how to make bombs were allegedly found in a notebook belonging to Warisriya Boonsom - a suspect behind the botched blast at Bhum Jai Thai Party office.

Warisriya, who is now in detention, admitted owning the notebook but denied writing down the tips.

"The notebook was found inside her luggage bag," Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tharit Pengdit said yesterday.

Warisriya and Kobchai Boonplod were arrested in Cambodia last Saturday and extradited back on Monday. They fled Thailand on June 23, one day after the blast occurred.

Both Warisriya and Kobchai are now detained at the DSI facility.

DSI senior official Lt-Colonel Sittiporn Charoenput said Warisriya was apparently suffering stress after she was interrogated. She was seen weeping on arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Monday.

"But her condition is now improving a bit. At least, she could eat after asking for some khao mun gai (chicken rice) for breakfast," Sittiporn said, as he led a media tour through the DSI facility.

He said the facility - which has 18 detention cells, each with a bed and bathroom - was maximum security. Each room was for one suspect only and DSI officials would monitor them all.

During the tour, reporters ran into Warisriya as she was brought to her cell. She was shocked to see reporters and stood speechless briefly before bowing her head.

Kobchai's mother Yuppadee Boonplod showed up at the DSI to visit her son yesterday evening. She said tearfully she did not believe her son was involved in the blast.

"He's a quiet, kind-hearted and helpful man. He has never harmed anyone." Yuppadee also denied reports Kobchai and Warisriya lived as husband and wife. "They just shared the same political ideology."

Yuppadee said Warisriya insisted she never said some red shirts betrayed her and Kobchai.

Central Investigation Bureau deputy-commissioner Maj-General Panya Mamen said Warisriya and Kobchai had confessed to buying a cart for the self-confessed bombers and giving them accommodation, but denied knowing about their bomb plot.

"We are going to check their phone-call records and we are digging deep into where the explosives and other equipment for the plot came from," Panya said.

He said Kobchai and Warisriya did not clearly specify who betrayed them.

"They said they went down to the lobby of a hotel in Siem Reap because someone told them via a phone call red-shirt leaders would meet them there. But when they came down, they met Cambodian officials instead and were arrested," Panya said.

Commenting on the case, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the investigation was seeking to find out who else was involved.

Warisriya has been quoted as saying that Payap Panket and DJ Aom, Kanyapak Maneejak, had betrayed her and Kobchai.

Deputy PM Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday expected the couple would give crucial details leading to the arrest of more people in the case. "Based on evidence and ongoing investigation, I am convinced these two suspects played a key role."

Asked if Thailand would ask Cambodia to arrest more suspects on its soil, Abhisit said the government had to analyse information from various sides first. "But we will of course seek co-operation from Cambodia too".

Friday, January 09, 2009

Police detain man for 2 major bomb plots in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A man allegedly involved in the 2007 explosion of the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument and the 2009 foiled bomb plots in downtown Phnom Penh has been arrested, according to national media on Friday.

Banteay Meanchey provincial police chief Hun Hean said that his officers working with the Ministry of Interior caught 46-year-old Ty To at his home on Wednesday and found 53 different bomb-making items there, including TNT and radio devices, English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily reported.

"(Ty To) told the police that he was involved with the attempt to blow up the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument and also with the TNT case on the Russian Boulevard (in Phnom Penh)," the newspaper said.

On Jan. 2, 2009, the police detonated three bombs outside the Ministry of National Defense and the state-run No. 3 TV station.

On July 29, 2007, a small bomb exploded right beside the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument. Two men were later arrested to serve terms in prison.

Neither accident caused any damage and casualties.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

One arrested in Cambodian bomb plot

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- One of the two suspects wanted in connection with Friday's foiled bomb plot in downtown Phnom Penh has been arrested, English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post on Thursday quoted a minister as saying.

The police detained the suspect following a detailed probe, said government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, while declining to give the identity and further information on basis of confidential consideration.

"We are collecting new information to arrest other suspects," he said.

The three explosive devices were found on Friday near the Ministry of National Defense and the TV3 headquarters, and later safely detonated without causing any damage and casualty.

According to the analysis of the bomb parts from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), they were made from aerosol cans packed with TNT, would have been noisy, but not destructive and only of little danger to the public.

Right after the accident, Khieu Kanharith said that the suspects committed acts of terrorism, which had affected the social order and security.