My husband's a murderer, terror trial told

The wife of an alleged ringleader of a Turkish al-Qaida cell believed to have plotted last year’s deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that her husband was a murderer and she wanted a divorce.

Cemile Akdas, the wife of Habib Akdas, is charged with membership in an illegal organisation and aiding and abetting terrorists. Her husband is believed to have fled abroad and has not been formally charged.

Cemile Akdas, who was detained shortly after the November attacks, told a court today that she travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan with her husband in 2001, but denied any intentional involvement in the attacks.

“What my husband did was a very bad mistake,” the Hurriyet newspaper quoted her as saying.

Asked by the court, if his actions only amounted to a mistake, she said: “This is being a murderer.”

“I submitted a petition to divorce my husband … I want to be released” from custody, she said.

Prosecutors claim Akdas and Mediha Yildirim – married to another top suspect in a religious ceremony that is not recognised in secular Turkey – helped to pass on bomb-making material used in the attacks and knew in advance that their husbands planned to flee.

Both women have denied the charges.

The court has started hearing evidence in the trial of 69 suspects charged with involvement in the bombings.

Sixty-one people, including British Consul-General Roger Short, were killed and more than 600 others injured in the November attacks on two synagogues, the British Consulate and the local headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank.