Turkey Gives Life Sentences to 5 over 2016 Killing of Russian Ambassador

Turkey’s NTV broadcaster, citing judicial sources, said on Tuesday that seven others were also convicted of membership in an armed terrorist group, an apparent reference to a movement formed by the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Former intelligence agent Vehbi Kursad Akalin was given an aggravated life sentence for leaking information on Karlov to the movement.

The suspects were accused of links to the gunman, who was killed by Turkish forces shortly after he murdered Karlov at a photo exhibition in the Turkish capital in December 2016.

After carrying out the murder, the assailant went on a rant caught on camera, which saw him bawling “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!”

Turkey then blamed the movement led by Gulen, an arch-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the murder. The movement denies the claim.

The assassination, condemned by the Turkish and Russian leaders as an attempt to disrupt Ankara-Moscow ties, came amid cooperation between the two countries over the Syrian conflict.

President Erdogan at the time called Karlov’s murder a “provocation especially aimed at disrupting the normalization process of Turkey-Russia relations.”

Ankara also accuses Gulen of orchestrating a failed coup to topple Erdogan in 2016 and refers to the cleric’s movement as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The coup attempt was suppressed within a couple of days.