Man charged with Istanbul terror bombings

A Turk was today charged with treason after authorities said he acted as a link between al-Qaida and suicide bombers who killed 62 people in Istanbul last month.

Adnan Ersoz, who was arrested on Monday, is suspected to have been involved in the planning of the four truck bombings after meeting Osama bin Laden, an intelligence official said today.

Ersoz confessed that he underwent explosives training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, the official said.

Ersoz appeared before an Istanbul court today and said he went to Afghanistan in 1997, admitted to receiving military training there, and met bin Laden in 2001, but denied advanced knowledge of the attacks, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

He also denied he had received orders from bin Laden to carry out the attacks.

The State Security Court in Istanbul charged Ersoz with attempting to overthrow Turkey’s “constitutional order by force.”

The offence amounts to treason and is punishable by life in prison.

No trial date has been set.

Police said Ersoz was captured as he entered the country at Istanbul airport. Anatolia said he had flown from Iran.

Ersoz told the court that he had come to Turkey because he wanted to take advantage of a government amnesty that benefits those who give information about illegal organisations to authorities.

He admitted he knew several of the suspects in the bombings, but denied any links to them.

Turkish police said he told interrogators that ”a local structure has been established in Turkey” linked to “an international terrorist organisation.”

Police also said the man said he lived abroad “and has been maintaining the link between this structure and the terrorist organisation.”

The police statement did not name the “international terrorist organisation,” but intelligence officials said the statement was referring to al-Qaida.

Ersoz was believed to be a senior member of local al-Qaida cells.

“He is one of the top guys who met bin Laden and received his blessing for the attacks,” the intelligence official said.

Another official said in his interrogation Ersoz confirmed that the militants’ first target was a Turkish military base used by the United States but they had been hindered by tight security.

They instead bombed two synagogues on November 15 and the British Consulate and a London-based bank in Istanbul five days later.

A total of 62 people, including the four bombers, were killed.

According to the Hurriyet newspaper, Ersoz said militants have been preparing for the attacks for about two years and that the militants were often shown videos of the killings of Muslims fighting in Chechnya and Afghanistan and were asked “Who will be a suicide bomber?”