Turkey: Suspect in 2006 top court attack gets life term

ANKARA

An Ankara court on Friday gave aggravated life sentence to Alparslan Arslan, the main suspect in the killing of a judge and wounding of four others in a 2006 armed attack at Turkey's top administrative court.

Arslan shot dead Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin and wounded four others, Mustafa Birden, Ayla Gonenc, Ayfer Ozdemir, and Ahmet Cobanoglu, in the attack at the Council of State on May 17, 2006.

The Ankara criminal court separately sentenced Arslan to 72 years in prison for attempting to kill the other four top judges.

Court handed down 14 years each to three other suspects, Osman Yildirim, Erhan Timuroglu, and Ismail Sagir, for helping Arslan for the killing and 39 years for the attempted murder.

Earlier on Friday, Osman Yildirim was captured with a fake ID in northwestern Edirne province while he was attempting to flee the country to Greece.

The attack on the Council of State judges was first tied by state prosecutors to what they claimed was a much bigger conspiracy, the Ergenekon probe which dates back to 2007 when a cache of explosives was found at the home of a former military officer.

On August 5, 2013, the appeals court separated the case from Ergenekon on the grounds that the local court had failed to show "legal and actual links" between an armed attack at the Council of State (Danistay) and the Ergenekon, which sought to overthrow the elected government.

In 2017, Turkish authorities said the 2013 Ergenekon trial was based on fabricated evidence, and blamed the prosecutions on Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) member soldiers trying to purge the military of rival officers.

FETO, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, is accused of orchestrating the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey -- which martyred 251 people and injured thousands -- as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, including the military.