Police: Suspect gave backpack to bomber

BANGKOK — Thai police said Wednesday that a key suspect has admitted to meeting the alleged Bangkok shrine bomber outside a train station and handing him a heavy backpack containing a bomb just before the blast occurred the night of Aug. 17.

Police announced the development as they escorted the suspect, identified as Yusufu Mierili, to the scene of the alleged handover and also to the Erawan Shrine, where the blast killed 20 people, for a public re-enactment of his role and movements before and after the explosion.

Public re-enactments conducted in front of the media are a common part of Thai criminal investigations, although they have been criticized for implying a suspect’s guilt before a trial. The suspect in Wednesday’s re-enactment has not yet been formally charged but police say he was a member of the network that carried out the attack.

The latest disclosure by the police appeared to be another element in reconstructing the attack, which has growing links to China’s Uighur extremists, although Thai authorities have not explicitly acknowledged that.

On Wednesday, police and armed commandoes escorted Mierili to Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong train station where he allegedly handed a heavy backpack to the suspected bomber, who was seen in security camera footage wearing a yellow T-shirt and leaving a large, black backpack at the open-air shrine just minutes before the blast.

“This place is where he met with the yellow-shirt man to exchange a backpack,” national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters outside the train station.

“Yusufu said the backpack that he carried was heavy and it was a bomb,” Prawut said.