A young Bangkok slum rapper who has irritated the authorities by taking on politics and society has denied throwing explosives at the military facility where the prime minister lives, a legal group said this morning.
A day after police detained Thanayuth Na Ayutthaya, aka “Eleven Finger,” and questioned at least seven witnesses about improvised explosives tossed in front of the 1st Infantry Regiment, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said he has denied being responsible.
When his girlfriend, identified only as Patima, went to testify yesterday to Bang Sue police, she was charged with conspiring to cause an explosion and carrying a weapon without reasonable cause. She denied all charges.
According to Col. Danupat Kwanpasumon of Tha Rua Police, security footage shows Thanayuth and other suspects driving by the regiment Sunday evening and throwing two ping-pong bombs – little more than firecrackers – over a gate. Danupat said police found explosive materials in a subsequent search of Thanayuth’s home.
He has been charged with causing an explosion and taking a weapon into the city without reasonable cause.
Thanayuth said he attended a protest near the Democracy Monument on Sunday and passed by regiment on his way home but did not throw any explosives.
Thanayuth has marked himself as a vocal critic of the military-backed regime through his music and was arrested in August 2020, at the peak of anti-government protests, after his name appeared on a leaked list of activists targeted by the authorities.
He’s been gaining attention abroad and appeared in School Town King, a documentary streaming on Netflix that follows him and another young rapper in the Khlong Toei slum as they break into the music scene.
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