9 Defendants in Trial of October 10 Massacre Given Life Imprisonment

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The court has announced its verdict in the trial of October 10 massacre, where a bomb attack was launched in the capital city of Ankara on October 10, 2015 and claimed the lives of 103 people. The verdict was announced in the 10th hearing of the case which was held at the Ankara 4th Heavy Penal Court in Sincan Prison Campus on August 3.

The court board, which was chaired by Selfet Giray, ruled that nine defendants shall be sentenced to life imprisonment aggravated for one time on charge of "violating the constitutional order" and given life imprisonment aggravated for 100 times on charge of "wilful murder."

The defendants who have been sentenced to life imprisonment aggravated for 101 times are Abdulmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakup Şahin, Hakan Şahin, İbrahim Halil Alçay, Resul Demir, Hüseyin Tunç and Hacı Ali Durmaz. They have also been given a total of 10 thousand and 557 years in prison on charge of "attempted murder" for having injured 391 people in the attack.

In the trial, where no public officers have been put on trial and 17 of the defendants have been fugitives and 19 of them under arrest, none of the defendants has been released.

What happened?

Two suicide attackers launched an attack ahead of the Peace, Democracy and Labor meeting attempted to be held in Ankara on October 10, 2015.

103 people lost their lives in the attack.

Trial of the massacre

The indictment concerning the attack was approved on July 13, 2016. The indictment stated that the attack order was given by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) representative to Turkey İlhami Balı.

It was stated in the indictment that it was the same people who organized the Suruç attack, which killed 33 people. 14 suspects including Balı facing from 5,083 to 7,820 years in prison on charges of "attempted murder for multiple times" and "attempting to annihilate constitutional order".

The first hearing of the trial was held at Ankara 4th Heavy Penal Court on November 7, 2016.

Of the victim lawyers Zinet Özçelik said at the hearing held on September 25, 2017 that they examined the CPS reports that show the routes and movements of the ambulances following the explosion and that 11 ambulances didn't receive any patient and nine others arrived at the scene half an hour later. (TP/SD)