Istanbul airport attack suspects on trial over terror

Forty-six suspects — one third of them Russian nationals — went on trial in connection with last year’s triple suicide bombing of Istanbul’s main airport, an attack that killed 45 people.

They are accused of “attempting to destroy the constitutional order” and “murder,” state-run Anadolu news agency reports.

They are also charged with “membership of an armed terror group” and “forming and running a terror group,” according to the indictment. The grave offenses mean a potential record jail term — up to 3,342 years — if convicted.

Anadolu says 42 of the accused, who had been under arrest, appeared in court at Silivri, outside Istanbul, in a hearing due to last four days. The other four suspects remain at large.

Sixteen of the accused are Russian nationals and the others are Chechen, Tunisian, Egyptian, Algerian, Syrian and Turkish.

Those killed in the suicide bombings at Ataturk Airport on June 28, 2016, included 19 foreigners and it was one of the worst attacks to rock Turkey’s biggest city that year.

— AFP

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