Turkish court sentences 3 to life over 2016 Ankara suicide bombing

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Turkish court sentenced three people to life in prison over a 2016 suicide bombing that killed 36 people in Ankara, Anadolu Agency reported. 

The court in Ankara on Wednesday handed Mehmet Veysi Dolasan 37 aggravated life sentences for the 36 deaths and “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the Turkish state.”

He was also given 10,260 years in jail for 342 attempted murders and 16 years in jail for possessing and transporting explosives. 

Sebahattin Karakoc and Azamattin Karakoc were both sentenced to life in prison on the same charge of “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity” of Turkey. 

They were also each given 16 years in jail for possessing and transporting explosives. 

The March 13, 2016 car bomb ripped through a crowded district in the centre of the Turkish capital. It was one of a string of bombings in Ankara since the resumption of the conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the PKK in 2015. 

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the bombing. 

TAK are an offshoot of the PKK. The group severed ties with the PKK, rejecting the parent party’s “passive struggle methods” and pledging more violence. The group said its goal is to oppose Turkey’s repression of the Kurds and avenge Kurdish deaths.