An official said on Friday that three Iranians, suspected in a thwarted bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok, spent time in the Thai resort of Pattaya just days ahead of the blasts.
Talking to a news agency on the condition of anonymity, an immigration officer in the coastal city said, “The three suspects stayed in different hotels in Pattaya”.
The officer also said that police have found a Thai woman, known as Nancy, who escorted one of the three Iranians, Mohamad Khazaei, during his stay in Pattaya.
Khazaei was detained at Suvarnabhumi airport late on Tuesday after a series of explosions.
“The most important evidence we found are pictures in Nancy’s mobile phone taken on the night of February 11 which prove that these suspects know each other,” the officer said.
As per the Bangkok Post, Nancy was also in Khazaei’s hotel room “but didn’t detect any irregularities except one time when he barred her from approaching a closet in the room.”
The English-language daily also published a photograph showing the three men relaxing in a hotel bar with two Thai female companions, under the headline: “Suspects partied in Pattaya.”
Pattaya is about a two-hour drive southeast of Bangkok.
On Thursday, Thai police chief Phrewphan Damapong said that Israeli diplomats were on the target of the Iranian men.