A court in Thailand has handed the death penalty to two men for a 2015 attack at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, the deadliest bombing in the country’s history.

The court issued its long-delayed ruling on Thursday, convicting two Uighur men of premeditated and attempted murder for their role in planting a bomb at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok’s commercial heart on August 17, 2015.

“The defendants committed a single act that violated multiple laws. The court therefore imposed the harshest penalty available under the law, the death sentence,” one member of the four-judge panel said.

The defendants, Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed, had denied the charges against them.

The decade-long trial over the horrific attack in Thailand’s capital that also wounded more than 100 people was beset by delays due to COVID-19 disruptions and problems securing translators.

Multiple Chinese tourists were among the dead when explosives – apparently left in a backpack – detonated at the Erawan Hindu shrine popular with tourists.

This is a breaking story. More to come…