NEW YEAR'S EVE BLASTS

'Not all the suspects are guilty'

CNS chief Sonthi reiterates warning to police about finding scapegoats

Army commander and Council for National Security (CNS) chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin yesterday said he did not believe that all of the suspects in police custody were actual masterminds or perpetrators of the New Year's Eve bomb attacks, even though evidence was found at their homes.

"I strongly believe that [they are innocent], because none of them has confessed to the crime. As for all those devices found in their homes, these people possess items in line with their profession. Go to my home and search around; you'll find some munitions," he said.

Sonthi, who returned from a trip to China on Wednesday, said his statement before leaving that national police chief General Kowit Watana would be held responsible if police arrested "scapegoats" remained unchanged.

Asked to comment on Kowit's earlier public statement that apart from the 18 suspects, including 14 military officers, no policemen were linked to the bombings, Sonthi said, "Only time will tell who is good and who is bad. We have just begun [the investigation process]."

Responding to police concerns about the CNS deadline for all the suspects to be released today unless criminal charges are filed against them, Sonthi said, "Then it is good. Because I will be able immediately to set up military panels to find out how these men had been behaving in terms of disciplinary action."

However, he declined to say what the CNS would do if police failed to achieve the goals expected of them by the military, saying, "Wait, no. I'm not going to fight with the police. I won't."

Sonthi said a parallel military inquiry into the attacks, which he ordered before leaving for China on Sunday, would continue and that he knew very little about another probe by the Justice Ministry's Department of Special Investigation that was ordered by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont.

An unknown number of the suspects took lie-detector tests yesterday. The results of the tests, along with those of previous ones on six of the suspects, were not immediately available.

Deputy police chief Lt-General Jongrak Juthanont said police interrogators were waiting for more evidence to be gathered by investigators. "No criminal charges can be filed against them until they obtain more concrete evidence," he added.

A senior police source said most suspects were expected to be released today - the end of the CNS' seven-day deadline- except for three or four in whose homes bomb-related material was found.

The Nation Thailand
Sunday January 28, 2007