Photo shows man resembling bomb suspect
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The lone suspect in three bomb incidents last week looks remarkably like the Pheu Thai Party supporter seen in a campaign photo standing behind Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, according to social media observers.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said yesterday that he would ask the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to confirm that the photo was possibly doctored to smear the party by insinuating that the coalition leader may have set up the bomb incidents to elicit public sympathy.
However, ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap refused to verify the authenticity of the photo, saying the ministry would take legal action only after the police's own IT division proved that the photo was altered.
Citing an unidentified source, the Thailanguage daily Khao Sod on Saturday reported that the suspected bomb planter, Jirawat Janpheng, now in court custody, was a redshirt guard who had become disgruntled over dismay by core redshirt leaders to get him compensated for the deaths of his relatives during last year’s protest crackdown by soldiers.
The emerging photo, distributed widely among several social networks, shows a man who looks very similar to Jirawat wearing a Pheu Thai polo shirt under a jacket posing behind Chalerm during a party campaign. Chalerm and the party’s leadership have not yet commented publicly on the issue.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt General Winai Thongsong said he would look into the matter once he saw the photo.
Police said they were going after two other suspects who might have assisted Jirawat in planting the six bombs at three locations in Bangkok. Police said a search of Jirawat had not been conducted yet due to a legal technicality involving his court custody.
Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government needed to be transparent regarding the matter, and that it depended on the government whether politics would become critical, through several issues including an attempt to amend the Constitution.
Meanwhile, a Pheu Thai opinion survey showed that 1,200 party members believe that a Cabinet reshuffle was not needed now, while a survey by Suan Dusit Poll found that the public thinks that Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit should be the first to be replaced.
Spokesman Prompong later said there would be efforts by antiPheu Thai movements after New Year to destabilise or even dislodge the government, with the passport issue involving defacto leader Thaksin Shinawatra as the catalyst.
