Turkey jails four 'IS-members' over 2014 attacks
Turkey jails four 'IS-members' over 2014 attacks
Turkey has jailed four "IS members" over a 2014 attack, the first such attack by IS militants inside Turkey.
2 min read
Turkey has been targeted by both IS and Kurdish militants [Getty]
A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced three members of the Islamic State group to multiple life jail terms and one other to several years in prison over a deadly gun attack in March 2014, reports said.
The attack in the central Anatolian region of Nigde left two Turkish security personnel and one civilian dead and is seen by the authorities as the first attack by IS inside the country.
The Nigde criminal court handed Cendrim Ramadani five life sentences and 174 years and six months in prison, Benyamin Xu four life sentences and 179 years and six months and Muhammed Zakiri one life sentence and 124 years and six months, the Dogan news agency reported.
The three suspects were found guilty of murdering public officials and seeking to disrupt order in the country. The sentences are believed to be the heaviest ever handed out to suspected militants.
The fourth suspect, Fuad Movsumov, was given 13 years and 9 months jail after being found guilty on lesser charges of being a member of a terror group.
All those sentenced are believed to be foreign nationals but their citizenship was not specified in the reports.
The assailants carried out the attack at a routine road check and were subsequently captured in hot pursuit hours later.
Turkey has subsequently been hit by at least five attacks blamed on IS militants, including a blast in Ankara in October 2015 that left over 100 dead and an attack on German tourists in Istanbul in January.
However IS extremists have never formally claimed responsibility for an attack in Turkey.
Turkey was long accused by its Western partners of turning a blind eye to the dangers posed by IS but has in recent months considerably stepped up police raids on the group's cells in the country.
The attack in the central Anatolian region of Nigde left two Turkish security personnel and one civilian dead and is seen by the authorities as the first attack by IS inside the country.
The Nigde criminal court handed Cendrim Ramadani five life sentences and 174 years and six months in prison, Benyamin Xu four life sentences and 179 years and six months and Muhammed Zakiri one life sentence and 124 years and six months, the Dogan news agency reported.
The three suspects were found guilty of murdering public officials and seeking to disrupt order in the country. The sentences are believed to be the heaviest ever handed out to suspected militants.
The fourth suspect, Fuad Movsumov, was given 13 years and 9 months jail after being found guilty on lesser charges of being a member of a terror group.
All those sentenced are believed to be foreign nationals but their citizenship was not specified in the reports.
The assailants carried out the attack at a routine road check and were subsequently captured in hot pursuit hours later.
Turkey has subsequently been hit by at least five attacks blamed on IS militants, including a blast in Ankara in October 2015 that left over 100 dead and an attack on German tourists in Istanbul in January.
However IS extremists have never formally claimed responsibility for an attack in Turkey.
Turkey was long accused by its Western partners of turning a blind eye to the dangers posed by IS but has in recent months considerably stepped up police raids on the group's cells in the country.
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