Turkish court hands life terms to Al-Qaeda associates

TURKEY, (AFP)

A Turkish court on Friday handed down life sentences to seven Al-Qaeda associates for their involvement in deadly suicide bombings against Jewish and British targets in Istanbul in 2003.

Among them was Syrian national Louai Sakka who masterminded and provided the financing for the November attacks against two synagogues, the British consulate and the British bank HSBC.

The remaining six were Turkish citizens convicted of organising the bombings that killed 63 people and injured some 600 others.

The court ruled that five of those sentenced to life, including Sakka, should not be allowed to benefit from any sentence reductions or amnesties.

Forty-one other defendants were given heavy prison terms ranging from 18 years to three years and nine months on various charges including being a local Al-Qaeda leader in Turkey, membership of the terror network and aiding the group. The remaining 26 were acquitted.

When the court announced its verdict, Fevzi Yitiz, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, shouted "Long live hell for the infidels!" while Seyit Ertul, given 18 years in jail, chanted "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great."

The verdict drew a mixed reaction from lawyers for the defendants, the civil parties involved in the trial and relatives of the victims.

"I was here today so that my daughter could rest in peace," said Erkan Talu, the father of eight-year-old Annette Rubinstein Talu who was killed in the attack on one of the synagogues.

"But I am not satisfied with the verdict. I want heavier sentences," he added.

Lawyer Namik Sofuoglu, who represented the British consulate, said he was satisfied with the ruling, while one of the defence lawyers, Mehmet Sami Selcuk, described the verdict as too harsh.

Selcuk, whose client was expelled from the courtroom earlier Friday for disrupting order while delivering a 700-page closing argument, said it was likely he would appeal the decision.

The November bombings were the worst militant attacks in Turkish history, in which suicide bombers rammed bomb-laden trucks into the synagogues on November 15, 2003, and the British consulate and the British bank HSBC on November 20.

Friday's verdict drew to a close a nearly three-year trial which saw the defendants calling for a holy war and denouncing mainly Muslim Turkey's strictly secular system in lengthy ideological statements.

"I will get out (of jail). I will be united with my gun and I will catch up with...the jihad brigades," Sakka was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as telling the court earlier Friday.

"Victory is very near," he shouted.

Sakka - an alleged associate of the former Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi - was arrested in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya in 2005 after a major police investigation into an alleged plot to blow up an Israeli cruise ship carrying tourists to the city.

Last month, British police also questioned Sakka in a Turkish prison over his role in the kidnap and beheading of British engineer Kenneth Bigley in Iraq in 2004.

Sakka's lawyer said last year that his client had presided over the informal court that sentenced British engineer Kenneth Bigley to death.

Bigley, 62, was kidnapped in Baghdad on September 16, 2004 and a video showing his grisly beheading was released in October. His body has never been found.

A heavy security presence was in place for Friday's hearing with some 200 policemen including elite forces and a police boat deployed around the court building in Besiktas, on the western shore of the Bosphorus Strait that cuts through the city.

Turkish media reported that security had been tightened after the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informed Turkish authorities of a suspected plot to attack the court, kill the judge and free Sakka.