 ANKARA - The suspected Islamist assailant in a lethal attack on a Turkish court was jailed Sunday, along with three alleged collaborators, the Anatolia news agency reported. The attack provoked political tensions in Ankara as secularists displayed their anger and accused the government of creating an atmosphere in which such incidents could take place. A judge who questioned the four men decided they should be imprisoned, pending trial.
| "He might decide to shoot up my courtroom next" |
Alparslan Arslan, a 29-year-old Istanbul lawyer shouted: "I'm a soldier of Allah" as he burst into Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, Wednesday, plugging killing a senior judge and wounding four others. As he opened fire, he said he wanted to "punish" the judges for rulings upholding a ban on the Islamic headscarf in public institutions and universities in Muslim-majority but strictly secular Turkey, according to court officials.
| Islamists regard this as an exchange of ideas... |
He was arrested immediately after the attack.  The three others along with Arslan allegedly hurled hand grenades at the Istanbul office of the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper earlier this month. Two of them reportedly accompanied him in Ankara on the day of the court shooting.
| So he wasn't a "lone gunman" |
They were accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, an offense carrying the life sentence, as well as of premediated murder, attempted premediated murder, use of explosives and breaches of the law on firearms, Anatolia reported. The prosecution will detail the charges when it draws up its indictment in the coming days. Five other men detained over the shooting were released.
| ... to see where they go and who they're associating with. |
The unprecedented attack sparked mass pro-secular protests and triggered accusations against the Islamist-rooted government that its opposition to the headscarf ban and vocal criticism of court rulings had emboldened extremists. The headscarf is widely seen as a symbol of Islamist militancy.
| You can't be a proper Islamic maiden without a headscarf. Everybody knows that. The scarf comes off, the pants do too. Next thing you know, you're going out on dates, disco dancing, and flinging your bra at a bandleader named Ramon. |
In a newspaper interview Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retorted lamely that the attack was "a great conspiracy" to discredit his government, which the secularist establishment, including the powerful army, suspects of seeking to reinforce the role of Islam in politics and daily life in Turkey.
| "Everyone is out to get me!" |
| As soon as they trot out the conspiracies you know they're guilty. |
There was no official word on the investigation, but Education Minister Huseyin Celik said Sunday the police were trying to determine the "puppeteer who pulled the strings" of the assailant. Erdogan said the probe was close to conclusion. "The links are being uncovered one by one and we are nearing the end," he said on the sidelines of an international gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, Anatolia reported.
"The Number 7, Captain?"
"This one is a bit tougher than most. The Number 4 truncheon, if you will" |
| If the pupeteers are Zionists, I'm throwing this tomato. |
On Saturday, a former army officer said to be a key figure behind the court attack surfaced in an Istanbul hospital with a minor knife injury in the chest, believed to be the result of a suicide attempt.
"What's that you're doing there, Captain Tekin?"
"I'm cutting my heart out for love of Islam."
"Oh. Okay. Don't let us disturb you." |
Questioned in hospital, Muzaffer Tekin said he knew the court assailant, but rejected allegations that he masterminded the attacks on the court and Cumhuriyet, police sources told Anatolia.
| "We are just casual friends, I hardly know him, really" |
Tekin, whom the gunman reportedly called frequently before the shooting, was flown to Ankara on a stretcher under heavy security measures Sunday.
| Gee, those phone logs really do come in handy, don't they? |
Four other suspects, including the owner of an Istanbul villa where Tekin hid after the court shooting and another person suspected of involvement in the attacks on Cumhuriyet, were sent to Ankara, the agency reported. Tekin was first reported to have been cashiered from the army for Islamist activities, but newspapers said Sunday he was expelled on disciplinary grounds and appeared to sympathize not with religious extremism but anti-Western Turkish nationalism. |