Five suspects have been charged in Bulgaria following the November 13 attack in Istanbul, blamed by authorities on Kurdish fighters from the PKK and their allies in Syria, the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office announced on Saturday.
“Five people have been charged with helping” one of the suspected perpetrators to flee, said Siyka Mileva, a spokeswoman for the Sofia public prosecutor’s office. His role was “logistical,” she said, adding that the prosecution had requested the arrest of four of them.
A Syrian suspect
According to local television channels, three are from Moldova and another from an Arab country, which is not specified.
Six people died and another 81 were injured in the explosion that occurred last Sunday in the middle of the afternoon in a pedestrian artery, in the heart of Istanbul. The attack has not been claimed at this stage.
Seventeen people were jailed in Turkey, including a 23-year-old accused of planting the bomb on a bank on Istiklal Avenue.
Detained in an apartment on the outskirts of Istanbul, Alham Albashir, presented as a Syrian national, allegedly entered Turkey illegally from northeastern Syria, according to authorities. She admitted to the facts while she was in police custody, they said.
The PKK has refuted the accusations against it
According to the official Anadolu news agency, citing the police report, she said she first came into contact with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2017, through her ex-boyfriend, and reportedly maintained a connection. with the organization after its breakup.
The PKK and the YPG (People’s Protection Units), a Kurdish militia active in Syria and accused by Turkey of being affiliated with the PKK, have denied any involvement in the attack.
Source: BFM TV
