Memet Gezer, allegedly responsible for Reyhanlı attack, deported to Turkey

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Ministry of Interior has announced that Memet Gezer, who allegedly gave the order for the bomb attack in Hatay's Reyhanlı in 2013, has been brought to Turkey from the United States of America.

According to the Interior Ministry's statement, defendant Yusuf Nazik, who planned the Reyhalı attack, said in his statement that he had received the instruction to launch the attack from Memet Gezer.

Born in Antakya on May 9, 1967, Memet Gezer was being internationally sought with a red notice on charge of "drug and stimulant dealing or provision". In Turkey, there was a search warrant against him on 17 charges including "being a member of an armed terrorist organization" and "disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country".

According to the Ministry's statement, the Interpol Europol Department has reached an agreement with the authorities in the US for his deportation after it was informed that Gezer was in the country.

Accompanied by the officials from the US, Gezer has been brought to Turkey and received by the officers of the Ankara Security Directorate's Counterterrorism Department at İstanbul Airport to be interrogated.

About Reyhanlı attack and judicial process

On May 11, 2013, two bomb-laden vehicles launched an attack in the district of Reyhanlı, Hatay, bordering Syria. The attack claimed the lives of 52 people and wounded 155 others. The 33-defendant main case filed into the attack was concluded on February 23, 2018. The Ankara 9th Heavy Penal Court sentenced each one of nine defendants to life imprisonment aggravated for 53 times and 4 thousand 32 years in prison.

The case files of eight fugitive defendants, including Mihraç Ural, were separated from the others. Nazik was also one of the defendants whose file was separated. It was announced in September 2018 that fugitive defendant Nazik was caught in Latakia in Syria in an operation launched by the National Intelligence Service (MİT) of Turkey.

The final hearing of Nazik was held on May 13, 2019. Nazik has been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for "disrupting the unity and integrity of the state" and to life imprisonment aggravated for 52 times for "killing 52 people for purposes of terror." That being the case, Nazik has been given a life sentence aggravated for 53 times in total. (AS/SD)