The trial for the 10 October 2015 Ankara station massacre ended on Friday.

The sentences handed out to the responsible of the massacre, in which 103 people lost their life, were for 'deliberate killing' and 'violation of the Constitutional order'.

In particular, 9 of the 36 suspects under trial were sentenced 101 times for 'deliberate killing'.

Almost three years after the Ankara Train Station Bombing, which killed 103 and wounded more than 500, the trial came to an end amidst no little controversy.

The court sentenced suspects Abdülmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakub Şahin, Hakan Şahin, Halil İbrahim Alçay, Resul Demir, Hacı Ali Durmaz and Hüseyin Tunç to aggravated life sentence for “violation of constitutional order” and to 100 times aggravated life sentence for “deliberate killing”.

The suspects were also sentenced to a total of 10,557 years in prison for “attempting to murder 391 people, including 20 children”, 27 years being for each case.

Suspects Abdülmubtalip Demir, Metin Akaltın, Yakup Şahin Burak Oramanoğlu and Hüseyin Tunç were given 10 year prison sentence and 40 thousand Lira penalty each for “possessing unlawful hazardous substance as part of organizational activities”.

Of these suspects, Yakup Şahin Burak Oramanoğlu and Metin Akaltın were given 10 year and 6 month prison sentence and 36 thousand Lira penalty each for “possessing calamitous guns and bullets”.

Burak Ormanoğlu, Suphi Alpfidan, Mehmedin Baraç, Nihat Ürkmez and Yakup Karaoğlu were sentenced to 12 years in prison each for “membership to an armed terror organization”, while Esin Altıntuğ (Durgun), Hatice Akaltın, Yakup Yıldırım and Abdulhamit Boz were sentenced to 7 year and 6 month in prison each for the same charges.

Erman Ekinci, who was sentenced to 18 years for “being an executive of an armed terror organization”, will also be tried on charges of “violating the constitutional order”, “deliberately killing 100 people” and “attempting to murder 391 people, including 20 children”,  

The attack was carried out by two ISIS members who blew themselves up among demonstrators attending a Peace Rally.

After the initial investigation one attacker had been identified as Yunus Emre Alagöz. The other couldn’t be identified at the time, but Turkish authorities said that he was a Syrian national.

Alagöz was the older brother of Seyh Abdurrahman Alagöz who carried out the attack against socialist youths in Suruç which killed 34 three months before the Ankara massacre.

Background

In 2013 some families in Adıyaman informed Turkish police that their children had joined ISIS. After that police took a number of people, including Alagöz brothers, under technical surveillance.

In March of 2015, police recorded conversations of Alagöz brothers bidding farewell to each other. It was a signal that they were preparing for an attack.

Also 22 days before the October 10 attack Turkish Security Directorate issued a report that warned against ISIS attacks.

Despite all warnings though, the Ankara attack was carried out.

Footage emerged showing how Alagöz and other attacker freely reached the spot where they carried out the attack.

Lawyer Eylem Sarıoğlu, representing relatives of the victims in the case against suspects who helped the attackers had told ANF that for about a year they couldn’t access the investigation files and when the files were released it was obvious that an effective investigation wasn’t carried out.

The lawyer had criticized the Turkish state for limiting the investigation with ISIS members and supporters and claimed that public officials should be tried over neglect or some actively taking part in planning of the bombing.