Turkey Synagogue Bombing Suspect Charged

Turkey Synagogue Bombing Suspect Charged

ANKARA, Turkey - A suspect in the bombing of a Turkish synagogue was charged Saturday with attempting to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order by force," the Anatolia news agency reported. The charge amounts to treason and is punishable by life in prison.

The suspect in the plot — one of four deadly Istanbul suicide bombings this month — was captured while trying to slip into Iran with a fake passport, Istanbul police said Saturday.

The charge formerly carried the death penalty but now is punished by life imprisonment after Turkey abolished executions as part of reforms designed to improve its chances of joining the European Union (news - web sites).

The Anatolia news agency said the suspect, who has not been named, was taken to Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison. No trial date was set.

Anatolia did not say why the court charged the man with treason. But leaders of outlawed groups that aim to overthrow the system have been charged with treason in the past.

The man is suspected of plotting and of giving the go-ahead for the Nov 15 suicide truck bombing outside Istanbul's Beth Israel synagogue, Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said. He was arrested Tuesday at the Gurbulak crossing in the eastern Agri province, which borders Iran.

Twenty-nine people, including the two bombers, perished in the attack and another synagogue bombing in Istanbul. Attacks on the British Consulate and a British bank five days later claimed 32 lives, including the two bombers. All four suicide bombers were Turks.

Police had been tipped off that the man planned to flee Turkey using false documents, Yilmaz said, without elaboration.

Five other suspects presented to the state security court Saturday were later released, the sources said.

Polat was arrested at a border crossing into Iran on November 25 and was found to be using a false passport, according to Turkish officials.

"The enquiry has shown that this man gave the order to launch the operation by going to the area moments before with several of the perpetrators of the attack," security official Halil Yilmaz told Turkish television CNN-Turk.

Two attacks targeted the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues during Sabbath prayers in the historical heart of Istanbul on November 15, killed the two assailants and claimed the lives of 27 other people.

Five days later another 32 people, including the two bombers, perished in suicide car bombings at the British consulate and the British-based HSBC bank in the city.

Since the blasts, more than 50 people have been detained and interrogated and more than 20 charged, according to Anatolia news agency.

Officials here have said Turkish nationals linked to radical Islamists were behind the bombings that were claimed by the al-Qaeda network and a local extremist group, the Islamist Great Eastern Raiders Front (IBDA-C).

For about 20 minutes on Saturday Polat, sporting a short, thin beard and of youthful appearance, was made to reconstruct his alleged movements and gestures on the day of the attack in the street where the synagogue is situated.

A major security operation was in place in the streets surrounding the synagogue during the reconstruction, with anti-terrorist police equipped with automatic weapons deployed and armoured vehicles positioned at nearby traffic crossroads.

According to news television channel NTV, the suspect is thought to be the brother of Mesut Cabuk, who was identified after DNA tests were carried out on the remains of a body found on the vehicle that exploded in front of the synagogue.

NTV reported that Cabuk's wife had been taken to Istanbul overnight on Friday to be questioned by police.

The British embassy in Ankara meanwhile said it would resume limited visa services in Turkey within days.

The Istanbul consulate, which used to handle the bulk of visa applications in Turkey, will remain closed "for some time" because of the extensive damage it suffered, the embassy said in a statement on Friday.

The embassy in the capital Ankara will instead begin operating a limited service on Monday.

Here's the man who was charged:

Here are the Dead bombers:

Mesut Chabuk (23): Born in Bingöl

Blew up the Beth Israel Synagogue

Gökhan Elaltuntash; (22): Born in Bingöl

Blew up the Neve Shalom Synagogue

Habib Aktash; (30): Born in Mardin

Blew up the HSBC Turkey headquarters

Feridun Ughurlu (31): Born in Bingöl

Bought the Neve Shalom truck and four days later blew up the British Consulate

Other pictures:

An unidentified suspect (R) connected to the suicide bomb attack on the synagogues in Istanbul November 29, 2003, is led away by Turkish police following a reenactment near the explosion site at Beth Israel synagogue. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas

Two of nine suspects linked to the four suicide bombings in Istanbul past week cover their faces as they are brought to the state security court by plainclothesmen in Istanbul November 27, 2003.

An unidentified suspect (C), connected with the recent suicide bomb attacks on synagogues, is surrounded by Turkish police and prosecutors during a reenactment near the explosion site at the Beth Israel synagogue in Istanbul November 29, 2003

A group of women wearing black Islamic chadors walk in downtown Bingol, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday Nov. 26, 2003. While devoutly Muslim, many in the town of Bingol harshly condemn the chain of deadly suicide attacks in Turkey after learning that two of the four suicide bombers grew up in Bingol and a third was from the area according to investigators.

Turkish honour guards carry the British flag-draped coffin of British Consul General Roger Short to a Turkish military cargo plane at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, November 27, 2003. British Consul-General Short and his assistant Lisa Hallworth were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the consulate in Istanbul last Thursday.

A plainclothes Turkish policewoman, holding a baby of one of the suspects , left, follows four of 18 suspected accomplices of the suicide bombers to the prosecutor's office for questioning in Istanbul, Turkey

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