Turkey gives IS member life in prison for 2017 New Year’s terror attack

A Turkish court on Monday sentenced an Islamic State member to life in prison over the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on a nightclub in Istanbul that left 39 people dead in 2017.

Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was charged with membership in a terror group, murder, and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, among other charges.

The court in Istanbul sentenced him to 40 separate life sentences.

Early on January 1, an assailant shot his way into Istanbul’s Reina nightclub where hundreds were partying to celebrate the New Year. The assailant escaped from the scene and the Islamic State group later claimed the massacre.

Lian Zaher Nasser of Tira, killed in a shooting attack at an Istanbul nightclub on January 1, 2017. (Courtesy)

Seventy-nine people were wounded. Several revelers jumped into the waters of the Bosporus to escape the attack.

Among those shot to death were 27 foreigners including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, and Morocco.

Lian Zaher Nasser, 19, from Tira in central Israel was one of those killed in the club, where she was celebrating the New Year with friends. One of her friends, another Tira resident, was injured in the attack.