Police go after Thai suspect's travel papers

Police go after Thai suspect's travel papers

Wanna, husband fail to contact police

Wanna Suansan, of Phangnga, also known by her Muslim name Maisaroh, was the first named suspect in the bombing investigation, and is still the only Thai who is officially suspected of involvement in the Aug 17 bombing at the Erawan shrine. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Wanna Suansan, of Phangnga, also known by her Muslim name Maisaroh, was the first named suspect in the bombing investigation, and is still the only Thai who is officially suspected of involvement in the Aug 17 bombing at the Erawan shrine. (Bangkok Post file photo)

Police are seeking to revoke the Thai passport of Wanna Suansan, a Thai woman whom police found had rented a room for suspects in the Erawan shrine and Sathon pier blasts and whose Turkish husband is also wanted in connection with the bomb investigation.

Police have submitted a formal request to the Foreign Ministry to consider revoking Ms Wanna's passport after she failed to contact authorities either in Thailand or abroad to defend herself against claims of her involvement in the case, police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri said Sunday.

Investigators probing the case found Ms Wanna had rented a room at the Maimuna Garden Home apartment in Min Buri where bomb-making materials were discovered, he said.

Emrah Davutoglu, Ms Wanna's Turkish husband, was found to have received money transferred from another key suspect, Abdul Tawab, a 40-year-old Pakistani national.

The money was linked to funding for the bombing, investigators say. 

The couple had not contacted authorities and their whereabouts are still unknown, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said.

A previous police probe found Ms Wanna, her husband and their infant left Thailand for Turkey, via Phuket, on July 1.

As for another key suspect, Abudureheman Abudusataer, or Ishan, police have yet to locate him, said Pol Lt Gen Prawut.

Previously, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said Mr Ishan left Dhaka, Bangladesh on a Jet Airways flight on Aug 30 before arriving in New Delhi, India.

The information came from a joint probe of Thai police and the Bangladeshi embassy in Thailand. 

Mr Ishan then travelled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and finally Istanbul, Turkey, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said at the time. 

Police were still uncertain whether the blue-shirted man, identified as Zubair Abdullah and who was seen on CCTV cameras kicking another bomb into a canal near the Sathon pier which exploded on Aug 18, one day after the shrine blast, was still in Thailand or had fled the country, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said.

He insisted police weren't rushing to wrap up the bomb investigation and they planned to address the public about their investigation's results today because they had already secured "complete" evidence to solve the case.

The evidence includes images of suspects caught in action while travelling to plant the bombs and leaving the scene, corroborated by their confessions, he said. 

A source on the probe team said Adem Karadag had confessed to being the yellow-shirted suspect who planted the bomb at the shrine on Aug 17.

He also confessed he had planted another bomb at the Chao Phraya Princess pier on Soi Charoen Krung 61 at 4.30pm on Aug 17.

However, the bomb failed to detonate, the source said.

The blue-shirted man then retrieved the bomb, moved it and dropped it in a canal near the Sathon pier the next day.

It went off but no one was injured. 

Pol Gen Jarumporn Suramanee, adviser to the national police chief, said he was leading a process of comparing pictures of Mr Karadag's face with the face of the yellow-shirted suspect using a biometric technique. 

In another development, three senior police officers at Lumpini station have been temporarily transferred to the Metropolitan Police Bureau for at least 30 days for allegedly failing to pay enough attention to the images of the suspected shrine bomber while he changed his clothes in Lumpini park, before heading back to the apartment.

They were identified as Pol Lt Col Apichart Thongchandee, deputy chief of Lumpini police, and investigators Pol Lt Col Thanes Meethong and Pol Lt Col Vacharaporn Wongboon.

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