MADRID, 6 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced four people to aggravated life imprisonment for their involvement in a 2016 attack in the city of Istanbul that resulted in the death of twelve German tourists.
The court has indicated that the defendants – Atala Elhasan, Feuzi Muhamed Ali, Halil Dervis and Ahmet el Hasan – have been sentenced to this sentence for “violating the Constitution” and has added 328 years in prison against them on other charges.
Likewise, the court has acquitted another 18 defendants citing lack of evidence to issue convictions against them, while the proceedings will continue against three other defendants who remain at large, as reported by the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia.
The suicide bomber, who blew himself up in the middle of a group of tourists in Sultanahmet Square, near the main monuments of the city, had entered Turkey as a refugee from Syria, according to the Turkish authorities, who blamed the attack on the jihadist group Islamic State .
Turkish authorities announced in September the arrest of the alleged leader of the Islamic State, identified as Mahmut Ozden. Ozden was arrested during an operation in the Adana province (south), according to the Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu.
Islamic State, which Turkey declared a terrorist group in 2013, has carried out several attacks on Turkish soil in recent years in which at least 300 people have died and hundreds more have been injured.
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