Jakarta – Twelve Indonesian men have died after drinking bootleg liquor, police said Tuesday, the latest deaths in the Muslim-majority country caused by homemade alcohol.

The victims died in Bantul district in the main island of Java in recent days, said local police spokeswoman Anny Pudjiastuti.

Four other people are in hospital after drinking the liquor, she said.

A man suspected of selling the alcohol has been arrested in Bantul, which is in Central Java, and 81 bottles of liquor confiscated.

“The suspect could be charged with causing death and could be jailed for 15 to 20 years,” said Pudjiastuti.

Police said they were still investigating what the bootleg liquor contained.

There have been several cases in recent years of people dying after drinking bootleg alcohol.

In February 26 people in Sleman district – next to Bantul – died after consuming locally-bought homebrew.

Indonesia is home to the world’s biggest Muslim population, but most practise a moderate form of Islam and alcohol is available in big cities.

However in rural areas, where few drink, getting hold of alcohol can be difficult and people sometimes turn to potentially dangerous homebrews.

BANGKOK – One of two ethnic Uighur Muslims from China accused of involvement in a deadly bombing in Thailand last year broke down and complained of mistreatment on Tuesday as he appeared in court.

Twenty people were killed and more than 120 injured in the bombing on Aug 17 at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok when it was thronged with tourists.

Five of the dead were from China and two from Hong Kong.

No group claimed responsibility.

Analysts, diplomats and even some officials suspected the attack was linked to sympathisers of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China angered by the Thai junta’s deportation of more than 100 Uighurs to China the previous month.

But Thai police ruled out “terrorism” as a motive and said the perpetrators were members of a network that trafficked Uighurs and launched the attack in anger at a Thai crackdown on the trade.

Police have arrested two suspects, Yusufu Mieraili and Adem Karadag, both of whom are Uighurs, and have issued arrest warrants for 15 other people, eight of whom are thought to be either Turkish or in Turkey, according to warrants and police statements.

Karadag and Mieraili have denied all charges against them.

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AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

“I’m not an animal,” a shaven, shackled and barefoot Karadag told reporters, as two guards led him into a military court.

“I’m human, I’m human.”

Inside the court, the tearful Karadag lifted his shirt, pointed to bruises and said through an interpreter that he had been beaten twice this month in custody, a Reuters witness said.

The judge said he would investigate and would consider a request by Karadag’s lawyer for a transfer.

Karadag’s lawyer, Schoochart Kanpai, said earlier his client had been tortured into confessing.

A stony-faced Mieraili appealed for help. “We’re innocent, help us, help us, where are the human rights?”

Mieraili said as he emerged from a prison van outside the court.

Lawyers said more than 250 witnesses could be called for the prosecution and defence. Schoochart said he hoped the trial would be over by the end of 2016, but it could drag on a year longer.

Police say Karadag was caught on CCTV footage at the shrine, sitting on a bench and slipping off a bulky backpack before walking away, just before the blast.

Most Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, live in China’s violence-plagued Xinjiang region.

Exiles and human rights groups say Uighurs chafe under government policies that restrict their culture and religion.

China denies this and blames Islamists for rising violence.

New Delhi – Five low-caste villagers have died trying to revive an unused well in a parched region of northern India, police said Tuesday, as the country reels under one of the worst droughts on record.

The five men, from India’s lowest Dalit caste, were killed by toxic gas in the pit of the well in Haryana state’s Jind district on Monday when they went in to clean it.

“The well had not been in use for about five to six years and a poisonous gas had formed in its depths. The five men inhaled that and died,” local deputy police chief Virender Singh told AFP.

Reports said villagers had complained local authorities were doing nothing to alleviate an acute shortage of drinking water in the area, forcing the men to go down the well.

India is in the grips of its worst water crisis in years, with the government saying about 330 million people, a quarter of the population, are suffering from drought after two weak monsoons.

Poor rains have prompted extreme measures, including restricting water, stationing armed guards at reservoirs and sending water trains to the worst-affected regions.

Last week India’s Supreme Court strongly criticised Haryana and two other states over their handling of the crisis, saying they had failed even to acknowledge the problem.

Singh denied there was a shortage of drinking water in Jind and said the villagers had not formally complained, or asked for the well to be revived.

“They did it hoping to restore water in the well for bathing purposes or washing utensils, for daily things, not for drinking,” he said.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been meeting with the chief ministers of affected states as the national government comes under intense pressure to ease the crisis.