ISTANBUL: More than 250 people, including seven foreigners, went on trial in Turkey yesterday over mass anti-government protests that rocked the country last year. The 255 suspects face a range of charges including violating laws on demonstrations, damaging a place of worship and injuring civil servants. The defendants face up to 12 years in prison if convicted, Abdullah Onur Eyuboglu, one of the defence lawyers said and added that it was unlikely any of them would be given jail sentences. He said the indictment was “deeply flawed, vague and one-size-fits-all”, with all suspects facing the same charges even though the alleged offences took place on different days. The nationalities of the foreigners were not disclosed. Local media said some of the suspects submitted their defence on the first day of the trial, with new hearings set to take place three days a week until May 29. Judges are expected to issue a verdict shortly afterwards. At least eight people died and 8,000 people were injured when a demonstration to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park escalated into nationwide protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen as an increasingly authoritarian leader.
‘Qaeda cell’ trial opens in UAE
DUBAI: Nine suspected Al Qaeda members accused of plotting attacks in the United Arab Emirates have gone on trial in Abu Dhabi’s state security court, newspapers reported yesterday. A first hearing was held on Monday, and the case adjourned until May 19 to allow for defence lawyers to be appointed, the reports said. The nine accused of forming an Al Qaeda cell, including one being tried in absentia, are Arab nationals, most of them from North Africa, according to Al-Khaleej newspaper. They are charged with “planning attacks damaging to the country’s security and (foreign) residents.” The indictment also accuses them of having “recruited, financed and given logistical support to Al-Qaeda” and attempting “to extend their activities to other countries in the region.” Abu Dhabi announced in April 2013 having dismantled an Al Qaeda cell planning attacks in the UAE.
Bahraini police post firebombed
DUBAI: Assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at a Bahraini police post in a Shia village near the capital Manama overnight, an interior ministry official said yesterday. Security forces “repulsed the terrorist attack against the police post in Sitra,” the official said, quoted by the BNA state news agency. He said the attack damaged “several stores in a shopping centre”. There was no mention of any casualties. Attacks on the security forces have intensified in the kingdom, mainly in Shia-populated villages surrounding the capital. Last month, assailants firebombed a police car in the Manama suburb of Hamad Town, only days after an explosion wounded a policeman in Diah village.
Jordanian dies of MERS virus
AMMAN: A man has died in Jordan after being infected with the MERS virus, a media report said yesterday, in the kingdom’s second fatality from the disease this year and fourth since 2012. Jordan reported the first death from MERS in February, after two fatalities in 2012. “The new death from the coronavirus was one of those infected with the virus who was 56-year-old who was suffering from anaemia and pneumonia, and who had been hospitalised,” health ministry official Mohammad Abdallat was quoted as saying by state news agency Petra. MERS emerged in 2012 and is mostly focused on Saudi Arabia, where it has killed 115 people, according to health officials there. Agencies
