Turkish prosecutor wants Ashkenazi, 3 more IDF chiefs jailed for flotilla killings

A Turkish prosecutor is seeking to indict and ultimately punish with 10 life sentences Gabi Ashkenazi and three other IDF commanders over the flotilla incident of May 31, 2010, which saw nine Turkish citizens killed after Israeli commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara while en route to Gaza.

In addition to Ashkenazi, who was IDF chief of staff at the time, the 144-page document released by Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci seeks to indict former Israeli Navy head Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom, former Israel Air Force intelligence chief Avishai Levy and former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin.

The document reportedly charges the four former Israeli commanders with the premeditated murder of 10 Turkish nationals and the deliberate torture of 114 Palestinian passengers on board the Mavi Marmara. Nine people are known to have died in the incident; a 10th, it is now claimed, died later.

The details of the proposed indictment, which can be served only with the approval of a senior government attorney, were revealed in the Turkish daily Sabah, but not immediately corroborated elsewhere.

According to the report, the Istanbul prosecutor questioned nearly 600 people, including 490 Mavi Marmara passengers and the relatives of those killed. He also corresponded with Israeli Foreign Ministry representatives and with the Turkish government and intelligence services in preparing the document.

Israel conducted a formal investigation into the Mavi Marmara event in 2011 and cleared the IDF of wrongdoing. Israel has refused to apologize to Turkey over the incident, saying the naval commandos were attacked as they sought to commandeer the vessel in accordance with Israel’s sea blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, and that they opened fire on their assailants in self-defense.

An official Turkish inquiry called the Gaza blockade illegal and slammed the interception of the Mavi Marmara by the IDF as “state-sponsored terrorism.”