[JURIST] The Royal Thai Police [official website] on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant, based on a sketch from a security video, for a foreign man thought to be the bomber who targeted and bombed the Erawan Shrine [backgrounder] in Bangkok on Monday. The man in the video left a backpack at the shrine fifteen minutes before the explosion. Police believe that the unidentified man was assisted by two others shown standing near him in the video. Although it is not confirmed whether or not these individuals were working in concert, police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri believes without doubt that the individual responsible for the bombing was not working alone. The shrine has since been re-opened to the public, but the police have offered a 1 million baht ($28,000 USD) reward for any information that may lead to his arrest.

Thailand’s political system has been unstable since the 2006 military coup [AHRC backgrounder, PDF] by the Royal Thai Army against then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile], and the Bangkok crackdown has only exacerbated the instability. Following democratic party defeats in 2011, Abhisit resigned [Bangkok Post report] as prime minister. A month before his departure, he rejected a proposal [JURIST report] by the opposition party seeking a referendum to grant amnesty to those involved in the 2006 military coup. In February 2011, seven leaders of Thailand’s “red-shirt” pro-democracy movement [BBC backgrounder], another group that opposes the country’s current leadership, were released on bail [JURIST report] after being arrested on terrorism charges stemming from their involvement in the Bangkok protests. Earlier in the year, members of the movement also petitioned [JURIST report] the International Criminal Court [official website] to launch a preliminary investigation into whether the government committed crimes against humanity during those protests.