Erawan suspect 'gave bomb' to man in yellow shirt

Police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri shows a photo of second blast suspect Yusufu Mieraili at a press briefing on Thursday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)

The Erawan Shrine bombing suspect detained in Sa Kaeo last week confessed to delivering a bomb to the man wearing a yellow T-shirt captured on CCTV footage after he left a backpack at the shrine shortly before the blast, a police source said Sunday.

The source said Yusufu Mieraili, a 25-year-old Chinese national detained in Sa Kaeo province on Sept 1, allegedly confessed to police investigators and security authorities that he personally handed the bomb to the man in the yellow shirt whom police believe placed the explosives at the Hindu shrine.

The source said Mr Mieraili would be taken from the 11th Army Circle to be questioned further by police investigators at the Metropolitan Police Bureau tomorrow.

The suspect previously admitted that he was near the Ratchaprasong area when the bomb exploded on Aug 17, but has denied being the bomber. Police believed Mr Mieraili, a chemical engineering graduate from a well-known university in China, detonated the bomb before escaping in a taxi.

DNA testing has failed to link him to the blast scene, but his fingerprints matched those collected from a container of explosive material found at an apartment in Nong Chok district, where police caught the first suspect in the case — Adem Karadak, also known as Bilal Mohammed.