Complaint filed against lawyer for ‘wishing God’s mercy’ on ISIL suicide bomber in Turkey’s southeast

GAZİANTEP/TEKİRDAĞ

A complaint was filed against a lawyer for “wishing God’s mercy” on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber in the southeastern province of Gaziantep. 

Orhan Şahin, the lawyer of the ISIL suspects in a deadly jihadist bomb attack case, “wished mercy” on ISIL militant İsmail Güneş, who blew himself up in a bomb-laden vehicle in front of the Gaziantep police headquarters on May 1, 2016, causing the deaths of three police officers. 

“I pass on my condolences to the families of those killed in the attack and wish God’s mercy on the person described as the suicide bomber. Even though one says ‘I love ISIL, I’m sympathetic to ISIL,’ it cannot cause one to be arrested,” Şahin told the court during a hearing last week in the Eighth Heavy Penal Court, prompting the court board to file a complaint over “praising crime and the criminal” to the Gaziantep Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. 

Şahin is the lawyer of 60 arrested suspects of the case that has a total of 110 suspects.

Meanwhile, one of the repairmen of the jihadist group was detained in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ after police became suspicious of his vehicle. 

Police determined that the man, only identified as Abdurrahman A., arrived in Turkey from Syria illegally and was repairing and maintaining vehicles used by ISIL. 

In his testimony, Abdurrahman A. said that he was previously active in ISIL ranks in Aleppo and was repairing vehicles in Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Manbij. He also said that his father, only identified as Temir Abu Y., was a tank driver for ISIL. 

The Tekirdağ police’s anti-terror branch then notified police in the southern border province of Hatay on the issue and Temir Abu Y. was detained in Hatay. 

The investigation into the jihadist father and son has been ongoing, while the police are trying to determine other militants who are linked to them.