More clues on Iranian bomb plot

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More clues on Iranian bomb plot

NOPPHADOL SRITHAWEEKAS,
SUPHARAT IAMTAL,
JEERAPHONG PRASERTPHOLKRANG
THE NATION



BANGKOK: -- More signs possibly relating to planned bomb attacks and prepared by a group of Iran nationals have been identified on Bangkok streets, apart from the stickers reading "SEJEAL" which police discovered earlier, a police source said yesterday.

Messages reading "SHOCKETHER", "NINER", "GAMI" have been found spray-painted on many walls along a Bangkok road heading to the JW Marriot Hotel, like the SEJEAL stickers which were pasted along the same route.

Police suspect the SEJEAL stickers - allegedly prepared by the bomb suspects - were intended to indicate a route used frequently by Israeli diplomats who are possible targets of the bomb attacks.

A former head of a Thai-Iranian alumni association, Saiyid Sulaiman, said the SEJEAL stickers could have been made up and posted at several locations in the capital to finger Iran and spoil good relations it had with Thailand.

Saiyid claimed he learned about the SEJEAL stickers on the day of the incidents. He did not give more details. He explained that SEJEAL was an Arabic word cited in the Koran, which means hot stones or fire stones. The word is also used to name a long-distance rocket in the Iranian military's inventory.

A suspect, Iranian national Mohammad Khazaei, has been placed in court custody after the Bangkok South Criminal Court denied his request for temporary release, which police opposed. Khazaei, in handcuffs and wearing a bulletproof vest, appeared grim and tense.

A special cell and heightened security have been provided for Khazaei at the Bangkok Remand Prison where he will be held for the first 12 days, and given special meals as part of his basic rights as an inmate.

Persian-speaking inmates will meet and chat with him occasionally to make him comfortable in a solitary cell monitored by security cameras, said prison commander Sophon Tuethammaphruek.

A police source said not all the five suspects may have known each other and entered Thailand to perform their roles on separate trips. The source said flight details showed that Norouzi Shaya Ali Akbar, 57, the alleged bomb-maker, and Laila Rohani, the alleged logistics officer, flew directly from Tehran to Thailand.

The three other suspects: Saeid Moradi, 28, who lost both legs after being caught in the blasts, Khazaei, and Masoud Sedaghatzadeh - now facing extradition from Malaysia - entered Thailand from Malaysia, after taking a direct flight from Tehran, through a transit flight to Phuket and then to Bangkok.

The explosives and devices could have been smuggled from Malaysia, before they were assembled into three radio bombs in Thailand, the source added. The SEJEAL stickers were not printed in Thailand and were possibly smuggled by Rohani, because they were found in her room.

A weekly meeting on progress in the police investigation into the blasts has been ordered by the prime minister, who appointed Deputy Prime Ministers Chalerm Yoobamrung and Yuthasak Sasiprapha as joint chiefs of operations.

A coordination committee working on the case has also been appointed, comprising the National Police chief and head of the National Security Council and immigration police and a Foreign Ministry representative.

 The Nation 2012-02-23