Uighurs charged in bombing of Bangkok shrine

BANGKOK, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- A military court in Thailand charged two men with the bombing of a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people.

Bilal Mohammed and Yusufu Mieraili were charged with premeditated murder and illegal possession of weapons and were indicted for the Aug. 17 bombing of the Erawan Shrine, the Bangkok Post reported on Tuesday. Neither Mohammed nor Mieraili, however, were charged with terrorism, the BBC reported.

Thailand authorities said Mohammed confessed to placing a backpack containing explosives at the shrine, and that Mieraili admitted to detonating the bomb.

The explosion killed 20 people and injured another 120, including foreign tourists. No motive for the attack has been revealed.

Documents from prosecutors submitted to the court stated that the men were Chinese nationals from the country's Muslim Uighur minority. Choochart Khanpai, Mohammed's lawyer, said the defendant had asked for an Uzbek man to serve as an interpreter because he could not speak English well.

The Bangkok bombing happened a month after Thailand deported a group of 109 ethnic Uighurs to China. Activists have said the Muslim group faces persecution from Beijing.

Thailand police, however, have said they are rejecting the notion that the bombing was a retaliatory measure against the deportations.

The shrine is a popular site for ethnic Chinese visitors from across Asia. Hong Lei, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the bombing "fully reveals the barbarity of the criminals."

On Tuesday, the United Nations raised its concerns about the use of military courts in the trial.

"The use of a military barracks as a detention facility is prone to human rights violations, including torture," said Matilda Bogner of the U.N. Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia.

The U.N. said the lawyer for one of the bombing suspects was not allowed to meet with his client in a confidential manner, and that his questions were screened beforehand.