Senior ISIL member sentenced to over 17 years

ISTANBUL

A Turkish court has sentenced a convicted ringleader of the ISIL terrorist organization to 17 years six months in prison.

Hattab Ghazal Al Sumaidai, codenamed Abu Zeyd and Ustad Zeyd claimed that he had worked as an assistant engineer in Iraq and that when ISIL took control of the city of Mosul in 2014, he was not aligned with the terror group.

During the trial, the court rejected his request for release and acquittal and instead handed him the lengthy sentence.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month announced Sumaidai's arrest by the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Istanbul police, calling him "one of the senior executives of the Daesh terrorist group,” using Arabic acronym for the terror group.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Oct. 17 announced 17 suspects were arrested over providing financial support to ISIL members.

A simultaneous operation was organized against 20 houses and seven workplaces in Istanbul to capture the suspects, while $15,900, 222,000 Turkish Liras, 32,480 euros and a large number of digital materials and documents were seized during the search of the suspects' houses and workplaces.

In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare ISIL a terrorist organization.

The country has since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed attacks. In response, Türkiye launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.