Bangkok bombing suspect not a Turkish national, says Turkish embassy
A Thai Royal Police handout photo taken with a mobile phone showing an unidentified suspect, who used a false Turkish passport (EPA Photo)


The Turkish embassy in Bangkok said that the the suspect, who was recently charged over last week's deadly Bangkok bombing, is not a Turkish national.As Thai security officials are in the process of identifying the suspect a police chief on Saturday has told reporters that involvement of international terrorism was unlikely and that the attacker was motivated by a personal feud, while the suspect's actual identity has raised controversy due to inconsistencies in the passport and ID card found in his home.Speaking to reporters on Saturday, police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said that the suspect was motivated by a "personal feud" and that international terrorism was "unlikely," but he did not elaborate further.The suspect, who is currently in military custody was charged with illegal possession of bomb-making materials, and reportedly had multiple passports when he was detained. Thai police have not yet confirmed the suspect's nationality, have pointed that the identity number found on his passport only had 10 digits, whereas the actual identity number has 11 digits. On the other hand, sources have also stated that the city section of the passport had a spelling mistake as Istanbul was spelled as Iştanbul. Sources have also noted that the suspect's identity card was registered to someone else, had different serial numbers and had previously been reported as lost. The suspect was arrested by Thai security officials in an apartment located in the eastern outskirts of Bangkok.Thai police have not specified the suspect's name or nationality.On August 17, a bomb blast rocked the Erawan Shrine in the Thai capital and killed 20 people and injured many others.