DNA shows Watana a serial bomber – Bangkok Post

Watana Pumret is seen entering Phramongkutklao Hospital where he plants a bomb that finally got him arrested.

A DNA test of the chief suspect in the Phramongkutklao Hospital bombing has confirmed his involvement in that attack as well as two of three prior bombing incidents in Bangkok, national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said yesterday.

However the non-match findings suggest more people were involved in the blasts, he said.

Watana Pumret, a 62-year-old retired engineer who was detained on Wednesday night, faces five warrants in connection with the Bangkok blasts.

They took place outside Major Cineplex Ratchayothin on April 9, 2007; outside the old Government Lottery Office (GLO) on April 5 of this year; near the National Theatre on May 15; and at the Phramongkutklao Hospital on May 22. The warrants also relate to the discovery of explosives in Mr Watana's house in the capital's Bang Khen district on Thursday.

Speaking after leading the interrogation of Mr Watana from Friday night to yesterday morning, Pol Gen Chakthip told the public Mr Watana is the suspect the police have been chasing for the series of bombings.

He was among those considered a person of interest in the probe into the attack on the hospital, which left 25 people injured.

He became a suspect when the investigators obtained sufficient evidence to prove a link between him and the bombing.

A key piece of evidence that convinced investigators Mr Watana was the man they were looking for was some CCTV footage showing him wearing a hygiene mask and carrying a bag into the Wongsuwon Room of the hospital where the explosion went off, said Pol Gen Chakthip.

More importantly, the suspect's DNA matches the samples collected from all previous bombing incidents he is believed to be involved in, except for the one outside the old GLO, said Pol Gen Chakthip.

And the fact that his DNA does not match the samples collected in an associated investigation into the GLO bombing led the police to suspect there must be others involved in some of the attacks, said Pol Gen Chakthip.

This contradicts Mr Watana's claim that he acted alone out of his strong political ideology against the military coup and his deep dislike for the military over the soldiers' roles in the dispersal of the red-shirt protesters at Wat Pathum Wanaram in Pathumwan district of Bangkok.

Six people were killed on May 19, 2010, when armed soldiers closed in on the rally site of red-shirt demonstrators against the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva in the Ratchaprasong area in an operation to reclaim the protest site.

Mr Watana, in the beginning of his interrogation, denied any wrongdoing, but when the interrogators confronted him with the security camera footage he confessed, Pol Gen Chakthip said.

Mr Watana faces charges of premeditated murder, causing explosions which severely injured others, possession of explosives, possession of arms without permits and causing damage to property.

Security sources said on Friday that Mr Watana confessed he went to the hospital to survey the scene several times in April before planting the bomb.

Mr Watana told police he bought a timer from Ban Mo electric market, items from a fireworks store on Rama VII Road, and a vase at a store close to Yanhee Hospital near the residence of his second wife.

One security source said the footage shows the suspect arriving at the hospital at 8.47am. He walked to the Wongsuwon Room shortly before 9am and left the room at about 10.20am. He then left the hospital at 10.22am.

The investigators also interviewed a patient who confirmed Mr Watana's visit to the hospital on the day of the blast.

The source said Mr Watana appeared tense when questioned. He said he was motivated to launch the hospital attack after regularly watching political programmes on a cable channel and listening to a community radio, which drove him to fight the military.

He described the hospital as a "random target" he selected to launch his attack in retaliation against the military over its crackdown on the red-shirt protesters at Wat Pathum Wanaram.

He apparently intended for the attack to be highly publicised and "symbolic" although he conceded that bombing a hospital is universally unacceptable.

Mr Watana, who is now in military custody, is expected to be handed over to the police on Tuesday, said Pol Maj Gen Chayapol Chatchaidech, chief of the Special Branch's Division 4.

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DNA shows Watana a serial bomber - Bangkok Post