Muslims acquitted of JI bomb plot charges

Don Pathan
The Nation

June 2, 2005

The Criminal Court yesterday acquitted four Thai Muslims accused of belonging to the Southeast Asian terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and plotting to bomb foreign embassies in Bangkok and tourist destinations in Phuket and Pattaya.

The court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict the four suspects, who were taken into custody two years ago and denied bail.

Immediately after the verdict was announced, the four men, chained by the legs and handcuffed to one another, dropped to their knees and, assuming the Muslim praying position, touched their foreheads on the floor as relatives in the courtroom wept and embraced.

One young man shouted Allah Alla-hu Akbar ( God is greatest ) as the four smiling defendants walked back to their detention.

Their defence lawyers moved immediately to apply for bail but it was denied, and the court forwarded the decision to the Appeals Court. Senator Kraisak Chonhavan had offered to use his position to post bail for the four defendants.

State prosecutors have 30 days to appeal against yesterday’s ruling.

Speaking to reporters from a holding cell at the Criminal Court yesterday, a high-spirited Dr Waemahadi Wae-dao said he was glad about the court’s ruling but did not see it as a major gain because he had been innocent all along .

I am just back to where I left off two years ago, said Waema-hadi, a well-known physician who also runs a community radio station in Narathiwat that was partly funded by the US Embassy in Bangkok, the very place authorities accused him of trying to blow up.

Staff members at the station still complain of police harassment, two years after Waemahadi was arrested.

The other three suspects were the owner of an Islamic boarding school, Maisuri Haji Abdulloh, his son Muyahid and Samarn Wae-kaji. They arrived in the courtroom yesterday in high spirits, wearing brown prison uniforms. The clanking of their chains could be heard down the hall as the four made their way into the packed courtroom.

They were greeted enthusiastically by relatives and friends as they made their way to the dock. Eight privately owned vehicles and four rented vans had brought scores of friends and relatives from the three predominantly-Muslim southernmost provinces. Others came by plane and an overnight train.

The four men stood up along with their lawyers and state prosecutors as the two judges took turns reading the court’s finding.

Quoting Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who told the public of the arrest of the four in his weekly radio programme shortly after they were apprehended, the judge said information leading to the arrest of the suspects had come from Arifin bin Ali, a Singaporean member of JI, who was arrested in Thailand in May 2003 and immediately handed over to the authorities in Singapore.

However, according to the court, there was nothing to support the claim that the four suspects were conspiring to carry out attacks as charged by the police. The four were arrested in June 2003, one month after Singaporean authorities took Arifin into custody under the city-state’s Internal Security Act. Prior to this case, the Thai government consistently dismissed any suggestion that the international terrorist organisation had set up cells here.

The arrests created outrage in Thailand’s minority Muslim community, especially in the Malay-speaking South.

An even greater uproar came in March 2004 when the lead lawyer for the four, Somchai Neelaphaijit, disappeared in mysterious circumstances in Bangkok. Somchai has never been seen again. Five police officers have been charged with his unlawful detention