Missing translator delays 2 Uyghurs’ trial for Bangkok bombing

The trial of two Chinese Uyghurs accused of killing 20 people in the bombing of a Bangkok shrine was postponed Tuesday because the men still do not have a translator.

The delay is the latest snag in a cryptic case that has so far shed little light on the horrific August 2015 attack in Thailand’s capital that also left 100 people wounded.

More than a dozen ethnic Chinese were among those killed when explosives – apparently left in a backpack – detonated inside a Hindu shrine popular with tourists. The blast came just weeks after Thailand’s junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uyghurs to China.

Thailand had long been a transit hub for some Uyghur extremists, most of whom were bound for Turkey.

Junta authorities have been criticized for a murky investigation that appeared to wind down shortly after the two men’s arrest, leaving more than a dozen key suspects at large.

Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed have denied all charges and have accused jailers at the military prison where they have been held for the past year of beating them and denying them halal food.

Authorities deny that the two men have been mistreated.

Their case was further complicated when their translator, an Uzbek national, fled after he was slapped with drug possession charges in June.

Sirojiddin Bakhodirov accused police of planting drugs on him as punishment for helping the Uyghurs, a charge officers denied.

“He did not come to the court today, so the trial needed to be postponed so that we can find a new translator,” defense lawyer Schoochart Kanpai told reporters outside the courtroom.

The judge agreed to table the proceedings until the next hearing date on September 15, according to a reporter inside the courtroom.

Prosecutors accuse Mohammed of placing the bomb inside a backpack at the shrine and say Mieraili was involved in transporting the device.

They say the bombing was carried out by a people- smuggling gang angered by a police crackdown.