Thai court sentences two Uyghur men to death for 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing that killed 20

A Thai court sentenced two ethnic Uyghur men from China's Xinjiang region to death on Thursday for the August 2015 bombing at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok that killed 20 people and injured more than 120 others. The verdict, delivered by a four-judge panel at the Bangkok South Criminal Court, found Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammad (also known as Adem Karadag) guilty of premeditated murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of explosive materials.

The attack

On the evening of 17 August 2015, a powerful bomb concealed in a backpack detonated at the Erawan Shrine, a Hindu shrine popular with foreign tourists and worshippers in Bangkok's commercial district. The blast killed 20 people, including five from mainland China and two from Hong Kong, and injured more than 120. Most of the victims were Chinese nationals. The explosion also knocked over motorbike riders waiting at a nearby intersection, setting some on fire.

The actions of both defendants constitute multiple separate offenses.

The investigation and trial

The trial took more than ten years to reach a verdict, delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and persistent difficulties in finding appropriate interpreters for the two Uyghur-speaking defendants. Prosecutors gathered evidence from hundreds of witnesses. Police arrested both men within two weeks of the attack. Bilal Mohammad was found hiding in a house on the outskirts of Bangkok where authorities discovered chemicals suitable for making bombs; he carried a forged Turkish passport. Security camera footage showed a man with long hair and thick glasses leaving a backpack under a bench before walking away quickly.

Both men pleaded not guilty and denied the charges throughout the proceedings. Their lawyer, Choochat Kanpai, told reporters they would appeal the sentence within one month. After the verdict, Mieraili wept and said through tears, "I have done nothing wrong," adding, "I cry for Thailand. I have not received justice. I ask the Thai people to help me." The court stated there was no evidence of torture and that investigators did not appear to have coerced confessions.

Retaliation theory

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but security experts and human rights organisations have pointed to a possible motive: the attack occurred just weeks after Thailand's then-ruling military junta forcibly deported 109 Uyghurs to China. Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minority from China's northwestern Xinjiang region, say they flee persecution. Beijing rejects those claims. Human rights groups and Western countries accuse China of mass human rights violations in Xinjiang, including the internment of up to one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

The attackers acted absolutely inhumanely and extremely heinously.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jiang said on Thursday that China supported the death sentence. Last year, Thailand deported another 40 Uyghurs to China, defying calls from United Nations human rights experts who warned they would face torture, ill-treatment, and irreparable harm if returned.

Questions over the verdict

Flaws in the police investigation have left lingering questions. The government, worried about the impact on tourism, ordered the attack scene cleaned up quickly; the shrine reopened two days later and the bomb crater was cemented over. Many security cameras in the area were not working. The defence argued the court failed to adequately consider several aspects of the case, including the treatment of the two defendants, who claimed they suffered mistreatment and torture in prison after their arrest.

The court did not sufficiently consider several aspects of the case, including the treatment of the two defendants.

In 2023, the International Federation for Human Rights, based in France, filed a petition with the United Nations denouncing the conditions of the trial.