A Turkish state security court declared itself incompetent in the trial of 69 suspects indicted over four devastating suicide attacks in Istanbul, effectively suspending the case. The decision came just hours after the high-profile trial started. Both the prosecution and defense lawyers challenged the court’s authority on the ground that parliament voted to abolish the state security courts in early May. The two sets of car bombings, the worst such incidents in Turkish history, targeted two synagogues on November 15 and the British consulate and the British-based HSBC bank on November 20, claiming 63 lives, including British consul Roger Short. According to the charge sheet, a local cell of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network was behind the carnage, which also left some 600 people injured and caused massive destruction. Full Story
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