Prosecutor dismisses lawsuit into claims of MİT involvement in Istanbul bomb attack

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Serap Eser, 17, died one month after she was badly burned on the bus in which she was traveling.

An Istanbul prosecutor has dismissed a lawsuit into former Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin’s claims that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) played a role in an Istanbul bomb attack in which an 18-year-old woman was killed.

Şahin, today the leader of the tiny Milat Party, said in an interview with daily Bugün that the incident, which took place before he became a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) minister, was the work of MİT.

“I have unfortunately learned that the people who sabotaged the bus, throwing Molotov cocktails, were members of MİT,” Şahin said.

Following Şahin statements, four of the six convicts, who were accused of carrying out the attack on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), filed a complaint to the Bakırköy Public Prosecutor’s Office on Jan. 23. They demanded authorities identify those who were implicated by the former minister for their roles and charged them with intentional homicide, slander, fabricating crime, tampering with and hiding evidence, forging documents and favoring criminals.

But Prosecutor Mehmet Şenay Baygın dismissed the lawsuit, saying Şahin’s claims were abstract and conjecture and that his words did not include any concrete evidence.

Serap Eser, 17, died in hospital on Dec. 12, 2009, one month after she was badly burned on the bus in which she was traveling.

The brother of Eser demanded information from Şahin following his claims.

“Why didn’t you do anything if you know [about the issue]? If you learnt this recently, then share the evidence with us so that we can apply to the prosecutor’s office,” Selçuk Eser said.

The four convicts, who were under 18 when the incident occurred, were sentenced to 24 years and two months in prison by a children’s court for being a member of terrorist organization and intentional homicide. Their files are set to be evaluated by the Court of Appeals.

Two other suspects in the case were sent to two aggravated life sentences for carrying out an act to destroy national unity and separatism.