Turkey: Multiple life terms sought for Reyhanli plotter

By Ismet Karakas and Serdar Acil

ANKARA

A Turkish prosecutor has sought aggravated life sentences for Yusuf Nazik, a key plotter of 2013 Reyhanli attack, judicial sources said on Monday.

The prosecutor asked the court to slap Nazik with 53 times aggravated jail term on charges of “destroying the state’s unity and integrity” and “killing intentionally” 52 people, including five children, according to sources who asked not to be named, due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Those injured in the attack and relatives of the victims also attended the hearing at 9th Heavy Criminal Court in capital Ankara, where the attorney of the plotter Nazik was not present.

During the hearing, Ahmet Tuna, father of a victim, asked Nazik to tell who provided financial support for him during the past five years after the attack and who helped him to cross to Syria from Turkey in the wake of the attack.

The hearing was postponed to Feb. 14 as Nazik’s attorney did not take part in the hearing.

Arrested by Turkish intelligence in the Syrian port city of Latakia on Sept. 12, Nazik, 34, has confessed to playing a role in the deadly bombing in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay, southern Turkey which killed 53 people.

Some 912 buildings, 891 workplaces, and 148 vehicles were also heavily damaged in the attack.