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Prime suspect in Istanbul synagogue attack charged
Jordan Times, Sunday, November 30, 2003
ISTANBUL (AFP) — A man suspected of giving the order that triggered a devastating suicide bomb attack on an Istanbul synagogue was Saturday charged with subversion. Yusuf Polat was charged with "attempting to violently overthrow the constitutional order," legal sources said, after he was earlier taken to the scene of the Nov. 15 blast at the Beth Israel synagogue for a police reconstruction.
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 Nov. 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 Nov. 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.
Nearly 700 other people were injured in the series of attacks. 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 radicals were behind the bombings that were claimed by 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.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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