Turkey charges seven over al Qaeda links: report
Güncelleme Tarihi:
A Turkish court on Friday charged seven men with links to al Qaeda and remanded them to custody, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The suspects were among 28 people rounded up in simultaneous raids Thursday by anti-terror police and the national intelligence agency in the western province of Eskisehir.
The court charged the seven men with "membership of a terrorist organisation and spreading propaganda" and jailed them pending trial, the report said. The remaining 21 suspects were released without charges.
Last month, a Turkish newspaper reported that Ankara had received U.S. intelligence that al Qaeda militants could be plotting attacks on foreign targets in Turkey.
A Turkish cell of al Qaeda was held responsible for truck bombs against two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul in 2003, which killed 63 people and left hundreds injured.
Seven men were jailed for life in 2007 over the bombings, among them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks.
In January, a suspected al Qaeda militant was killed and three others captured in a shootout with the police in Istanbul after the group attempted to rob a post office.