Two suspects accused of killing 20 people at a shrine in Bangkok denied the charges today before a military tribunal.
Adem Karadag, 31, aka Bilal Mohammed, told the military court Tuesday he was not even in Thailand at the time of the Aug. 17 explosion at the Erawan Shrine, which killed mostly foreign tourists.
His co-defendant, 27-year-old Yusufu Mieraili, said he did not want the court-appointed military lawyer assigned to him despite his request for civilian representation.
"I am not guilty and I have been in jail for six months," Mieraili said in court through a Uighur translator. "I want to find a lawyer and pay for it myself."
Through his lawyer Schoochart Kanpai, Karadag admitted to entering Thailand illegally with a fake passport, saying he sought to travel on to work in Malaysia to help support his family in Turkey, who had already fled China’s far flung Xinjiang territory.
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