Turkey: Australian Daesh member gets 7-year sentence

KILIS, Turkey

A Turkish court on Friday sentenced an Australian national to seven-and-a-half years in prison for being a member of the terrorist group Daesh.

Neil Christopher Prakash, currently remanded in custody in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep, attended his hearing in Kilis, also in the southeast, via videoconferencing.

In a statement to the court, Prakash affirmed that he had been a member of the terrorist group for some time, but later “regretted it and left.”

The trial was followed by officials from the Australian Embassy in the capital Ankara and some foreign journalists.

Prakash was caught in October 2016 while trying to illegally cross into Kilis at the border with Syria.

Last December, Australian Interior Minister Peter Dutton announced that his citizenship had been revoked.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit