The military handed two key suspects in the Criminal Court grenade attack on March 7 over to police for prosecution on Wednesday.
Supaporn "Dear" Mitarak, 49, who is accused of hiring others to throw the grenade that exploded in the court car park, was taken to the Metropolitan Police Bureau by soldiers from the 11th Infantry Regiment in the afternoon.
She was accompanied by Jetsadapong Wattanapornchaisiri, 44, an alleged conspirator.
The soldiers then escorted the two suspects to Royal Thai Police headquarters, where they were questioned by national police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang and investigators. They face a range of charges including terrorism and attempted murder.
Mrs Supaporn was said to have been directly hired by Manoon Chaichana, a.k.a. Anek Sanfran, a lese majeste fugitive who lives in the United States and allegedly funded the plot.
After the interrogation, Pol Gen Somyot alleged Mrs Supaporn confessed to colluding with Mr Anek, saying they shared the “same ideology” and he had promised to look after her two sons.
Pol Gen Somyot said Mr Anek, who owns a restaurant in the US, and Mrs Supaporn were behind a plot to bomb five locations in Bangkok last month, but it was aborted after the people they hired refused to go ahead with the plot.
Police were to take Mrs Supaporn and Mr Jetsadapong to the Bangkok Military Court later Wednesday afternoon where they would seek to detain them for a further 12 days to allow for further investigation.
Of the 17 suspects for whom arrest warrants were issued for the Criminal Court attack, 15 have been detained. Two of them, Wasu Iam-laor and Surapol Iam-suwan, remain in military custody. Mr Wasu allegedly received money from Mrs Supaporn and Mr Surapol was allegedly hired to plant bombs at the five locations — being paid 10,000 baht for each location, police allege.
The other two suspects who are still at large are Mr Anek and Weerasak Towanjorn, aka Yai Pattaya, who allegedly provided RGD-5 hand grenades.
