Police capture ISIL convict after attempted prison break

The convict, identified only by the initials K.A., was detained on a bus en route to Istanbul, after securing permission to leave a semi-open prison in Akçakale claiming that he was going to take a test at Şanlıurfa’s Harran University. 

After finding that K.A. did not have a scheduled test at the university, security forces launched an operation to find him and stopped the bus he was on at the exit of the town. 

 K.A.’s attempted prison break came some three weeks after five suspected ISIL members escaped from prison in the Marmara province of Kocaeli, despite intelligence warnings.

Suspects Gökhan Bulut, İrfan Yıldız, Raşit Karadağ, Serdar Sarıçam and Duran Çoban, who were detained during operations in 2015 targeting the Turkish wing of the jihadist group, all escaped the Kocaeli Open Prison on May 3, it was revealed.

Three of the men were subsequently apprehended, although reports did not indicate which of the ISIL convicts had been caught.

The suspects were arrested on “large-scale arms smuggling” charges but were acquitted of being members of ISIL.