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| Europe |
| Binny ordered Sakra to attack Turkey |
| 2006-02-12 |
| A Syrian was charged Friday with masterminding suicide bombings that killed 58 people in Istanbul, and Turkish prosecutors claimed that Osama bin Laden ordered him to carry out terror attacks in this pro-Western country. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, 32, was accused of serving as a point man between al-Qaida and homegrown militants behind the series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in 2003, said the indictment. It said al-Saqa gave the Turkish militants about $170,000. Al-Saqa had cosmetic surgery, according to a medical report, and operated by using an array of fake IDs and employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts, according to the indictment. Several accused Turkish al-Qaida suspects recognized al-Saqa's photos but identified him with different names, most calling him "Syrian Alaaddin." He was charged, according to the indictment, with "attempting to overthrow the constitutional (secular) regime." The prosecutor's office demanded life in prison for al-Saqa and identified him as "a high-level al-Qaida official with a special mission." The office released only a summary of the long indictment, which came after a six-month investigation. The summary mentioned bin Laden's personal order but did not say when or where al-Saqa met with the al-Qaida leader. In the past, prosecutors have said al-Saqa was trained in an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. Al-Saqa's lawyer was not available for comment. Al-Saqa has already been sentenced in absentia by Jordan, along with al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a failed plot to attack Americans and Israelis in Jordan with poison gas during millennium celebrations. He was captured in Turkey in August after an alleged failed plot to attack Israeli cruise ships in the Mediterranean. Identifying himself as a guerrilla fighter, al-Saqa admitted to failed plans to stage an attack on Israeli tourist ships. "I was going to blow up the Israeli ship in international waters," al-Saqa testified. Al-Saqa and his Syrian accomplice, Hamid Obysi, were captured after an accidental explosion forced them to flee the safe house in Antalya. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Bet he wishes he was at Gitmo. Death would be welcome after a few months in a Turkish Prison. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2006-02-12 09:08 |
| #2 Nope, they ditched it pending EU membership. If they ever reinstate it, PKK supremo Abdullah Occalan'll be one of the first ones snuffed, followed in short succession by Sakra and Co from the Istanbul bombings. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-12 04:56 |
| #1 Does Turkey have death penalty? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-12 04:10 |