Thai police speed up probe into Feb 14 bomb blasts in Bangkok

BANGKOK, February 20 (TNA) - Thai police are checking any possible terrorist connection with a spate of bomb blasts in Bangkok on February 14, as the Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the fifth suspect and investigators have continued interrogating Khazaei Mohammad, a bombing suspect who was recently arrested at Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Police Lieutenantt General Jaramporn Suramaree, chief of the Royal Thai Police's Scientific Crime Detection Centre, acknowledged Monday that a DNA test found connection between Mohammad and shirts, caps and shoes collected from a rental house damaged by one of the three explosions on Sukhumvit Road on Feb 14, but police have not yet obtained a DNA sample for comparison from Moradi Saeid, an Iranian man who was injured in the February 14 blast incidents. Bangkok's Criminam Court, meanwhile, issued Sunday the arrest warrant for the fifth suspect who allegedly delivered bomb-making materials and taught three Iranians to use explosives which caused three blasts on Sukhumvit 71 Road. The metropolitan police Monday brought Mohammad from the Immigration Bureau to the Metropolitan Police Bureau for further interrogations, headed by Deputy National Police Chief Police General Pansiri Prapawat himself, as the police charged the suspect with making and possessing explosives, causing explosions and harming people and properties. In another development, Thai public prosecutors are seeking the extradition of another suspect, Sedaghat Zadeh Masoud, from Malaysia within this week. As Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is paying a one-day official visit to neighbouring Malaysia today, she is expected to seek the extradition of the Iranian suspect, apart from her discussions on bilateral trade, investment and cooperation on security operations in Thailand's far South with Malaysian authorities. (TNA)