İstanbul bombing: 17 suspects remanded in custody, assailant changes statement

Armored vehicle carrying suspects leaving the courthouse. (Photo: AA)

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Among the 52 suspects who were detained in relation to the İstanbul bomb attack, 17 were remanded in custody early today (November 18).

Forty-nine suspects were brought to the courthouse yesterday, while two were released after giving statements to the police.

Police interrogation of a suspect identified with the codename "Hüsam," who was nabbed in Syria's Azaz, has not yet been completed.

After yesterday's proceedings at the courthouse, the court ordered the arrest of 17 suspects, including Ahlam Albashir, who carried out the attack, on charges of "disrupting the unity of the state and integrity of the country," "wilful murder," "attempting wilful murder," "aiding wilful murder."

The arrested suspects were sent to the Marmara Prison in the Silivri district on the outskirts of İstanbul.

The İstanbul 3rd Penal Judgeship of Peace also ordered the deportation of 29 suspects while three were released on judicial control measures.

Six people were killed and 81 others were wounded in the bombing on November 13 on İstiklal Avenue, a popular tourist attraction in the Beyoğlu district.

Albashir's statement

Albashir gave her statement accompanied by an Arabic interpreter. Parts of her account of the events were different from what she told the police, according to statements released by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) and other news outlets.

"We took a taxi with Bilal. We were going to Taksim. While in Taxi, Bilal received a phone call. He told me, 'Go, I'll come.' I went to İstiklal Avenue with the bag," she said. "I was sitting on a bench. I touched the bag. I saw crisps and stuff. There was something soft under it. I thought it was drugs. I sat there for about 40 minutes."

In her statement to the police, Albashir had said she had known there was a bomb in the bag, and Bilal Hasan, her fugitive accomplice, had carried the bag during their travel from Syria to Türkiye in July. Hasan is believed to have escaped to Bulgaria on the day of the attack.

Still image from security camera footage shows the assailant sitting on the bench where the explosion occurred. (Photo: AA)

While sitting on the bench, she received a phone call from Hacı, the person who orchestrated the attack from Syria, according to her statement. "'Leave the bag, and leave there,' he said. I left. I was looking for perfume at the moment when the explosion happened. I left the perfume and ran away.

"I took a yellow taxi. I understood what happened when the taxi driver showed me on the phone. I went to the workshop in Esenler. After arriving in Esenler by taxi, I took an unlicensed taxi to go to the apartment in Küçükçekmece."

After arriving in Türkiye, Albashir and Hasan were disguised as a married couple working at a textile workshop in the Esenler district. They were staying on the lower floor of the workshop. The owner of the business was also detained following the attack. Albashir was detained in an apartment in the Küçükçekmece district.

Statement of the suspected smugglers

Ahmed Jarkas, who took Albashir from Esenler and to Küçükçekmece, where she was nabbed, denied human smuggling allegations, saying he and his brother were unlicensed taxi drivers.

Ahmed and Ammar Jarkas, who have a criminal record for human smuggling, are believed to have helped Bilal Hasan cross into Bulgaria after the attack.

Ahmed Jarkas said in his statement that he didn't know Hasan. "Halil Menci asked me to drive her [Ahlam Albashir]. Menci lives in Qamishli, Syria. Without knowing anything, I was just told to drive her. The place I was caught is the home of our neighbor. We wanted to report her to the police when we saw her photo while we were at home, but the police came before we reported her.

The people caught with Albashir

Albashir was detained in the home of a Kurdish family who migrated to Türkiye from Syria. The family had told Rudaw that Ahmad Jarkas and his mother, who were once their neighbors, had introduced Albashir to them as a "guest who will go to Europe tomorrow" and asked them to host her for one night.

The statement of Mahmud Haso, who was in the apartment at the time of the police raid, was in line with the family's statement. While they were at home, Hatice Al Kurdi, the mother of Jarkas, came with a woman, he said. When his cousin asked her who she was, she responded, "My son Ahmad brought her. She will go abroad," according to Haso.

Haso said they had visited the family's home to see a newborn baby of a woman named Emine. "I wasn't even aware that the person who detonated the bomb was the person who came. Ammar and Bakar showed me something on the phone. Then they went to the kitchen to talk about something. The guest was their guest. I didn't mess with anything. They called Zekeriya [to the kitchen].

"Ten minutes passed. I heard Zekeriya swearing. 'Who did you bring home?' he said. While he was leaving, he stopped at the door. He said, 'Get me the phone, I'm going to call the police.' When my cousin was at the door, they yelled at each other and got into a scuffle.

"Ammar said, 'Look, maybe it's not her.' Then the doorbell rang. The police came. My cousin said, 'The girl is here'."

Hadir Çerkes and Hatice Al Kurdi said they had visited the family to see the baby, and Muhammed Şiho and Mesut Hesso said they stopped by to take medicines."

The judgeship ordered the arrest of the nine suspects who were in the apartment during the raid for "disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country," "premeditated murder by bombing or using nuclear and chemical weapons," "and attempted premeditated murder by bombing or using nuclear and chemical weapons." (AS/VK)