It has been 7 years since Adem Karadağ and Yusufu Mieraili were detained and put on trial for their involvement in the bombing of the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok. Enmeshed in a legal quagmire, their lawyer says no clear evidence has yet proved them guilty thus far.

Adem Karadağ (front) and Yusufu Mieraili (back)

The outside of the Bangkok South Criminal Court was not very lively late on the morning of 8 December. Inside however, one of the important cases in the country was moving forward, under the watchful gaze of several observers, including from the Embassy of China.

Since 2020, the trial has been proceeding against Adem Karadağ and Yusufu, two Uyghurs arrested for the bombing at the Erawan Shrine at Ratchaprasong intersection on 17 August 2015, a tragedy that killed 20 and injured 130.

Although the trial now is in a civilian court, the case was put into the military’s hands several years back, with one of the accused making claims of torture and threats of death and deportation.

With translation partly by an interpreter nominated by the Chinese, the military prosecution ran into problems, and with a large number of prosecution witnesses, justice has been delayed, whether the Uyghurs are guilty or not.

Mud match

One month after the incident, Karadağ was arrested in his apartment in Bangkok’s Nong Chok area while Mieraili was arrested at the Thai-Cambodian border. Among other charges, they are accused of first-degree murder and possession of explosive material.

The two have been detained in military custody since then due to a special junta provision assigning national security cases to the military courts.

The case was handed back to the civilian courts in 2019 prior to the general election, but the trial was not launched until 2020. The case is now hearing testimony first from prosecution and then defence witnesses.

Defence lawyer Choochart Kanpai told Prachatai that more than 400 witnesses have been called by the prosecution, of which only 23 have already testified in the military court, and 17 in the civilian court.

Choochart is petitioning the Court to cut the remaining witnesses to 200, as they are not related to the case, such as those who were casualties of the bombing and their relatives; their injuries are admitted but may actually not be related to the charges. 

He added that the trial was also slowed by a suspension for about 2 years due to Covid-19.

Chalida Tajaroensuk, Director of the People’s Empowerment Foundation, a local human rights NGO, who has been observing the case, said the trial is proceeding slowly and that some of the witness testimony presented similar information. She would be happy if there was a chance to eliminate some of the prosecution witnesses.

“Justice that is delayed means that the victims’ rights are violated,” said Chalida.

Evidence in question

Choochart insists on the defendant’s innocence, since the evidence presented has yet to connect the two defendants to the bombing incident. 

The main evidence concerns materials seized from Karadağ’s room (Room 412) and another nearby room (Room 414). The police said two keys were found in Karadağ’s room, but neither were able to unlock an external lock on Room 414 so the authorities had to cut it off. This implies that Karadağ could not get into Room 414.

And despite the fact that one of the keys was able to unlock the door of 414, the apartment owner has already said that several rooms’ doors can be opened by one key.

He went on to say the materials that were seized in Karadağ’s room and in the other room in the apartment building have been separately filed in the evidence list by police and military, but the military’s list somehow has larger amounts of explosive chemicals than the police’s.

This mismatch in the evidence is still unexplained by the military whereas testimony from the Office of Police Forensic Science testified that the military sent the evidence directly to the Office instead of the investigating officer overseeing the case, which is uncommon in legal procedure and may have great significance to the case.

In Adem’s case, the lawyer said he was not in Thailand prior to the incident.

Eyes and tongue from China

One of the delays has been caused by interpretation problems. As Karadağ speaks only Uyghur, there has to be a two-step interpretation: between Uyghur and English, and between English and Thai. 

An Uyghur-English interpreter appointed by the Court was proposed by the Chinese Embassy, a country whose systematic forced assimilation of ethnic Uyghurs, especially in the Xinjiang region, has been under scrutiny.

Bora Bahtiyar, an independent Uyghur-English interpreter from Australia, has been in the courtroom since 22 November, observing the official Uyghur-English interpreter. He told Prachatai that he had noted over one hundred mistranslations, such as translating “Erawan Shrine” as “Erawan District”, and “Inspector” as “Police”.

After raising an objection through a attorney, the judge acknowledged his point and allowed him to assist the official interpreter in translation.

Bora is concerned that mistranslation may risk affecting the direction of the case.

Choochart (2nd from the right), Bora (middle), and Chalida (2nd from the left) give press interviews after the trial.

Thailand’s history regarding the Uyghurs is problematic. In 2015 it forcibly deported 109 Uyghur detainees to China by plane. As of June 2022, at least 56 Uyghurs were reportedly being detained by Thai Immigration authorities.

Chalida observed that the continuous presence of observers from the Embassy was a sign of pressure over the defendants’ future.

Lengthening trial, deteriorating conditions

Karadağ’s statements from September 2015 to January 2016 were provided to Prachatai. They claim that he has been subjected to torture, beatings, and the threat of death and deportation to China in order to have him confess to being the bombing perpetrator. 

The details include some sort of waterboarding, threatening him naked with military dogs, having armed officers forcing him to confess in the presence of high-level policemen, taking him to places and forcing him to say he had been there despite him never having been there.

Exhausted and afraid of threats, he eventually confessed in the investigation stage, but later recanted the confession in court.

Karadağ and Mieraili have been kept since 2014 in a temporary detention facility in the Infantry Battalion 11th Military Circle, Lak Si, . where overcrowding was less of a problem than solitude and health problems.

“They want to relocate to a prison with many people so that they can learn some Thai language, because with only two people, studying Thai is slow. If they are in the Bangkok Remand Prison at Bang Khen, it should be better for them. If they are in the military prison, there are too many officers,” said Choochart.

He added that Karadağ has a frequent urethritis and developed some issues with his eye, likely a cataract. He planned to submit a letter for him to be sent to the prison hospital for a medical check-up. Mieraili’s health is still fine.

According to Benar News, the two have never been allowed to contact their relatives and their food sometimes contained pork, despite the fact that both men are Muslims.