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Turkey Synagogue Bombing Suspect Charged

Posted on: Saturday, 29 November 2003, 06:00 CST

A suspect in the bombing of a Turkish synagogue was charged Saturday with attempting to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order by force," the Anatolia news agency reported. The charge amounts to treason and is punishable by life in prison.

The suspect in the plot - one of four deadly Istanbul suicide bombings this month - was captured while trying to slip into Iran with a fake passport, Istanbul police said Saturday.

The charge formerly carried the death penalty but now is punished by life imprisonment after Turkey abolished executions as part of reforms designed to improve its chances of joining the European Union.

The Anatolia news agency said the suspect, who has not been named, was taken to Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison. No trial date was set.

Anatolia did not say why the court charged the man with treason. But leaders of outlawed groups that aim to overthrow the system have been charged with treason in the past.

The man is suspected of plotting and of giving the go-ahead for the Nov 15 suicide truck bombing outside Istanbul's Beth Israel synagogue, Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said. He was arrested Tuesday at the Gurbulak crossing in the eastern Agri province, which borders Iran.

Twenty-nine people, including the two bombers, perished in the attack and another synagogue bombing in Istanbul. Attacks on the British Consulate and a British bank five days later claimed 32 lives, including the two bombers. All four suicide bombers were Turks.

Police had been tipped off that the man planned to flee Turkey using false documents, Yilmaz said, without elaboration.

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