Preliminary examination to be carried out for then-police chief in ISIL’s Ankara train station attack

ANKARA

The Ankara Regional Administrative Court has ruled for preliminary investigations to be carried out into a former police chief and two other officials in the case into the twin suicide attack carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in October 2015. 

The court ruled for governor’s office to investigate then-Ankara police chief Kadri Kartal and two others over their responsibilities in the Oct. 10, 2015 attack that killed 101 people, daily Cumhuriyet reported on March 22. 

Lifting an earlier decision to not include the complaints of victims of the attack in the process, the court paved the way for an investigation to be launched against public officials in the case into the attack. 

The Ankara Governor’s Office on Nov. 1, 2016 decided not to include in the legal process complaints from the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects’ (TMMOB) concerning allegations of public officials’ neglect. 

Upon that decision, TMMOB head Mehmet Soğancı and a lawyer for one of the victims filed a complaint, to which the court replied by saying the decision to not include complaints into process was not legally correct. 

Ruling for the acceptance of the objections, the court ruled for the lifting the decision of Ankara Governor’s Office and the preparation of a preliminary examination report. 

The Ankara bombing on Oct. 10, 2015, was the deadliest terror attack carried out in the country by the jihadist group, killing 103 people, including the two suicide bombers. Some 391 others were wounded.

The attack occurred when the suicide bombers linked to ISIL targeted NGOs and supporters of left-wing parties holding a peace rally outside the capital’s main train station, weeks before the Nov. 1, 2015 general election.

Meanwhile, two men suspected of links to the slain perpetrator of an ISIL attack on a Christmas market in Berlin last year were arrested by an Istanbul court on March 21.      

The men, identified only as Bilal Y.M. and Youssef D., were arrested for membership of an armed terrorist organization under investigation from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.      

Anis Amri was shot dead by Italian police following the attack in which a truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital on Dec. 19, 2016, killing 12 people and wounding 49 others. 

The jihadist group claimed responsibility for the truck rampage one day later.