Lawyer for Bangkok bomb accused says client confessed

The ethnic Uighur accused of planting a bomb at a Bangkok shrine has admitted involvement in the deadly attack, his lawyer said on Sept.30, reversing earlier denials of a confession.

The comments by lawyer Schoochart Kanpai confirmed the Thai authorities' version of the complex investigation into the August 17 blast which killed 20 people.
 
Earlier this week Schoochart had questioned whether the man -- whom police have named both as Bilal Mohammed and as Adem Karada? -- had confessed.
 
The lawyer said his client had previously insisted he was not in the country on the day of the attack.
 
But after meeting his client on Sept.30, Schoochart reversed his position.
 
"I met Adem this morning for about an hour and he said he confessed voluntarily to planting the bomb," the lawyer told reporters outside the military barracks in central Bangkok where the accused is detained.
 
It was not immediately clear if authorities were present during the meeting on Sept.30.
 
On Sept.26 police said they were now convinced that Mohammed, the first person to be arrested, was the same man seen in CCTV footage wearing a yellow T-shirt and placing a backpack at the Erawan shrine moments before the explosion.
 
They said his confession, together with other security camera footage and eyewitness accounts, confirmed they had the right man -- after earlier saying DNA evidence suggested it was unlikely to be him.
 
Police say they believe the man in the yellow shirt wore a wig and glasses to disguise himself.
 
In a briefing on Monday, investigators released a series of four sketches showing how Mohammed could have transformed his appearance from the initial suspect sketch which showed a man...