A Thai court has sentenced two Uyghur men to death for carrying out the 2015 bombing of the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok — the deadliest terrorist attack in Thailand's history. The explosion, which tore through the popular tourist and religious site on the evening of 17 August 2015, killed 20 people and wounded more than 120 others. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. The convicted men, Bilal Mohammad — who had been travelling under a forged Turkish passport bearing the name Adem Karadag — and Yusufu Mieraili, are both from Xinjiang, the north-western Chinese region that is home to the majority of China's Uyghur Muslim minority. Both have consistently denied the charges and their lawyers have confirmed they will appeal the sentence, which they must do within one month under Thai law.
The court found that the two men planned and detonated a powerful bomb placed beneath a bench near the shrine, ruling that phone records placed both men at the scene and showed them in contact with each other at the time of the blast. However, the case has been shadowed by serious procedural concerns. The original crime scene was cleaned up within days by authorities anxious to protect Thailand's tourism industry, and many nearby security cameras had not been working. Investigators later identified the bomb-planter from grainy footage as a man bearing little resemblance to Bilal Mohammad, yet charged him with the crime nonetheless. Both suspects alleged they were tortured into making confessions while held in military custody — confessions they later withdrew when the trial began. The International Commission of Jurists and other human rights organisations have argued that the decade-long proceedings were so flawed the two men should have been released.
The trial's extraordinary length — more than ten years — was itself a source of controversy, with repeated delays attributed largely to difficulties finding a Uyghur-speaking interpreter acceptable to both the defence and the court. Thirteen other suspects had arrest warrants issued against them, several of whom had already left Thailand before any arrests were made. In a widely criticised move, police awarded an $80,000 reward for information leading to the culprits to themselves after the first two arrests, despite acknowledging that many others remained at large.
No group ever claimed responsibility for the attack, but security analysts have long pointed to a likely motive: one month before the bombing, Thai authorities forcibly repatriated 109 Uyghur men to China, a decision that prompted fierce protests in Turkey and elsewhere. The Erawan Shrine is particularly popular among Chinese visitors, lending weight to the theory of an act of retribution. China's government, which has faced sustained international criticism over its restrictions on Uyghur religious and cultural freedoms in Xinjiang, welcomed Thursday's verdict. A foreign ministry spokesperson described the perpetrators as having "acted with utter inhumanity."
The verdict lands amid broader tensions over Thailand's treatment of Uyghurs. Last year, Bangkok deported a further 40 Uyghurs to China, defying warnings from United Nations human rights experts who said the individuals faced a serious risk of torture and irreparable harm upon return. With an appeal now confirmed, the legal process for the two convicted men is far from over — but for many observers, the deeper questions about who was truly responsible for one of Asia's most shocking attacks of the past decade remain unresolved.