İstanbul bombing: Key suspect's brother in custody, says interior minister

Security camera footage showing Bilal Hassan. (Photo: AA)

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The brother of a fugitive suspect in the deadly November 13 İstanbul bombing has been detained, the interior minister announced late yesterday (November 27).

The brother of Bilal Hassan, who is believed to have escaped to Bulgaria hours after the attack, was taken to the İstanbul Provincial Security Directorate, Süleyman Soylu said during a Twitter Space session.

Six people were killed and 81 others were injured when a bomb planted under a bench exploded on İstiklal Avenue, a busy pedestrian street in Taksim.

Twenty-four people, including Ahlam Albashir, who planted the bomb, have been remanded in custody since the bombing, with 29 people deported.

Hassan is a key suspect who crossed into Türkiye from Syria in July with Ahlam Albashir, who planted the bomb, according to Albashir's statements to the police and prosecutors.

The two disguised themselves for four months as a refugee couple working at a small textile business.

Ammar Jarkas, who brought Hassan to the border province of Edirne, and Hüseyin Güneş, who met them in Edirne and is believed to have helped Hassan cross into Bulgaria, are also arrested.

Four suspects, one from Syria and four from Moldova, were arrested in Bulgaria over a week ago. The Sofia City Court ruled that they should be remanded in custody because they entered the country illegally and on suspicion that they were involved in human smuggling.

Meanwhile, İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya announced that 74 of the 81 injured people have been discharged from treatment. None of the seven people still receiving treatment are in intensive care now, he said on Twitter.

(AS/VK)