Requested sentence for the Istiklal Avenue terrorist bombing revealed

A terrorist bombing took place on Beyoğlu Istiklal Avenue on Sunday, November 13, 2022, resulting in the deaths of 6 people and leaving 99 others injured.

The trial regarding the incident will continue tomorrow at 10:00 AM at the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, in the previous hearing, the court announced its interim decision and ruled for the continued detention of 18 defendants, including Ahlam Albashir, who left the bomb. It was also ordered that the file be sent to the Public Prosecutor for the preparation of the final opinion. The Public Prosecutor is expected to present their final opinion on the merits at tomorrow's hearing.

FROM THE INDICTMENT

In the 154-page indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for 36 defendants, it was noted that the treacherous bombing attack was planned by elements of the YPG/PYD, the Syrian branch of the PKK/KCK Armed Terrorist Organization, which aims to establish a so-called independent, unified, democratic Kurdistan state in line with Marxist-Leninist principles on the territories of Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and which aims to create sensation by targeting the lives of civilians as has been demonstrated many times before. The indictment recorded that 6 civilians, namely child Ecrin Meydan and her father Yusuf Meydan, Adem Topkara and his wife Mukaddes Elif Topkara, and Arzu Özsoy and her daughter Yağmur Uçar, lost their lives, many people were injured, and many businesses suffered material damage as a result of the attack. The moments when Ahlam Albashir left the bomb were recounted with timestamps.

The indictment, which also stated that an investigation was immediately launched into the incident, detailed that in the examined camera footage, the female suspect—wearing black boots, camouflage-patterned pants, a khaki-colored fleece, a black leather jacket, a carefully tied black headscarf, and a mask—got out of a white vehicle in front of the Atatürk Cultural Center in Taksim Square at approximately 15:16, about an hour before the incident, with a brown backpack on her back and bags in her hand, and walked toward Istiklal Avenue. It was reported that she entered Istiklal Avenue as of 15:19, entered a cosmetics store at the entrance of the avenue at 15:21 to shop, left the store with her backpack and bags at 15:26, continued walking on the avenue, sat on the benches where the explosion would occur at 15:30, placed the bags in her hand and the backpack on her back next to her, started walking toward Taksim Square at 16:11 leaving the backpack and bags on the bench, and at 16:13, a grave explosion occurred on the wooden grate at the corner where the mosaic-cast seating area—which had wooden grates fixed along the front—met the mosaic-cast concrete planter on the avenue side.

3 THOUSAND 9 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT REQUESTED

In the prepared indictment, it was requested that Albashir be sentenced to a total of 7 aggravated life sentences and imprisonment ranging from 1,949 years and 6 months to 3,009 years for the crimes of 'disrupting the unity and integrity of the state' (aggravated life sentence), 'being a member of an armed terrorist organization' (7 years and 6 months to 15 years), 'intentional killing of a child by bombing with premeditation' (aggravated life sentence), 'intentional killing by bombing with premeditation' (5 aggravated life sentences), 'attempted intentional killing by bombing with premeditation' against 99 people (1,930 years and 6 months to 2,970 years), and 'unauthorized possession or exchange of dangerous substances' (12 to 24 years). In the indictment, it was requested that other suspects, including the fugitive defendant and organization leader Cemil Bayık, be sentenced to 7 aggravated life sentences each and imprisonment ranging from 1,938 years to 3,016 years and 6 months.