Accused Istanbul nightclub gunman Abdulgadir Masharipov formally charged, reports say

Updated

The gunman suspected of killing 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day has been remanded in custody, Turkey's state-run media says.

Abdulkadir Masharipov was caught at a hide-out in Istanbul on January 16 after evading police for more than two weeks.

He was formally charged with membership of an armed terrorist group, multiple counts of murder, possession of heavy weapons and attempting to overturn the constitutional order, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Saturday.

Authorities said the suspect was trained in Afghanistan and staged the attack for the Islamic State (IS) group.

IS has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Reina nightclub.

Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against IS and launched an incursion into neighbouring Syria in August to drive the Sunni militants, and Kurdish militia fighters, away from its borders.

The jihadist group has been blamed for at least half a dozen attacks on civilian targets in Turkey over the past 18 months, prompting the authorities to intensify their efforts to break up its suspected networks in the country.

Police in the southern city of Adana detained a Danish and a Swedish citizen suspected of receiving weapons and explosives training in Syria and of planning attacks in Europe, Anadolu said.

On Thursday, police in Gaziantep, another city near the Syrian border, detained four IS suspects believed to be planning attacks in Turkey, along with suicide belts and explosives.

The arrests came after the biggest round-up targeting the jihadist group in Turkey last weekend, in which 748 suspects were detained.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Istanbul police arrest New Years Day gunman and associates (ABC News)

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Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, turkey

First posted </s> The gunman suspected of killing 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day has been remanded in custody, Turkey's state-run media says. Abdulkadir Masharipov was caught at a hide-out in Istanbul on January 16 after evading police for more than two weeks.

Start the conversation, or Read more at ABC News. </s> In a massive operation in mid-January, Turkish authorities detained Abdulgadir Masharipov, 34, who spent 17 days on the run following the Reina nightclub attack, claimed by Islamic State (IS) jihadists

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Saturday remanded in custody an Uzbek national accused of killing 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day, state-run media said, an attack the authorities blamed on Islamic State.

Abdulgadir Masharipov, who was caught in a police raid in Istanbul on Jan. 16, was formally charged with membership of an armed terrorist group, multiple counts of murder, possession of heavy weapons and attempting to overturn the constitutional order, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility a day after the mass shooting at the exclusive Reina nightclub on the shores of the Bosphorus waterway, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.

NATO member Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and launched an incursion into neighboring Syria in August to drive the Sunni militants, and Kurdish militia fighters, away from its borders.

The jihadist group has been blamed for at least half a dozen attacks on civilian targets in Turkey over the past 18 months, prompting the authorities to intensify their efforts to break up its suspected networks in the country.

Police in the southern city of Adana detained a Danish and a Swedish citizen suspected of receiving weapons and explosives training in Syria and of planning attacks in Europe, Anadolu said on Saturday.

On Thursday, police in Gaziantep, another city near the Syrian border, detained four Islamic State suspects believed to be planning attacks in Turkey, along with suicide belts and explosives.

The arrests came after the biggest round-up targeting the jihadist group in Turkey last weekend, in which 748 suspects were detained. </s> Police in Turkey on Sunday arrested at least 448 suspected Islamic State members in nationwide raids. The police operation is the biggest in the country since the attack on an Istanbul nightclub on January 1, in which 39 people were killed, AFP reported. The Islamic State group had said that they had carried out the attack to avenge deaths in Syria at the hands of Turkish military forces.

At least 150 Syrians were among those arrested, with several other people being picked up from regions bordering Syria. Sixty suspects, mostly foreigners, were arrested from four districts in Ankara. Dozens of other arrests were made in the eastern and western provinces of the country. Former Turkish diplomat Sinan Ulgen said the raids represented a change in strategy by the country’s police, who have till now only detained small numbers of suspected militants.

However, the arrests may not lead to any prosecutions, as the country’s efforts against the Islamic State “is still handicapped by discrepancies between the different arms of the Turkish state” Ulgen said, according to The New York Times. Former counterterrorism official Ahmet Yayla also questioned the effectiveness of the raid, saying that it could overwhelm the police’s operational capacity. “It is impossible to process that many terrorists in one operation,” Yayla said.

The attack on the Reina nightclub is the first such incident in Turkey that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for, even though the group has been blamed for several bombings in 2016. The main suspect in the shooting was arrested on January 17. Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, was arrested from the Esenyurt district in Ankara. The Turkish police had detained 35 people in connection with the incident before arresting Masharipov. </s> At least 60 suspected jihadis were arrested in Ankara, just over a month after a terror attack on Istanbul which claimed the lives of 39 people.

The New Year's Eve night club attack saw a gunman go on the rampage with a machine gun in the club. Most of the victims were foreign nationals.

This morning's raids saw Turkish police arrest the suspects - including foreign nationals - who are believed to have been planning attacks.

The operation around the country saw 150 suspects detained in Sanliurfa in the southeast, 60 in the capital Ankara as well as dozens more arrests in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Bingol in the east, the Dogan and Anadolu news agencies reported.

The New Year's Eve attack was the first time ISIS claimed responsibility for an atrocity in Turkey, although it had been suspected of several bombings during 2016.

Police detained the suspected New Year's Eve attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 after over over two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre.

The Hurriyet daily reported after the attack that ISIS also planned a simultaneous New Year's strike in Ankara but dropped the plot after arrests by the Turkish authorities. </s> A man charged with murdering eight people on a New York City bike path invoked “Allah” and defended the Islamic State group in court Friday, reports said.

Sayfullo Saipov, 30, raised his hand to speak out immediately after U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick set an Oct. 7, 2019, date for the Uzbek immigrant's trial.

He said he cared about "Allah" and the holy war being waged by the Islamic State group.

"So the Islamic State is not fighting for land, like some say, or like some say, for oil. They have one purpose, and they're fighting to impose Sharia (Islamic law) on Earth," he said.

"So the Islamic State is not fighting for land, like some say, or like some say, for oil. They have one purpose, and they're fighting to impose Sharia (Islamic law) on Earth." - Sayfullo Saipov, defendant charged with eight deaths in New York City

Prosecutors had been seeking an April 2019 trial date. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle said the families of the dead and the dozens who were injured deserve a "prompt and firm trial date."

"The victims here are anxious now when that trial is going to be," she said. "The public deserves a speedy trial, and the surviving victims deserve to know when that trial is going to be."

Following his arrest, Saipov requested that the ISIS flag be displayed in his hospital room, the New York Daily News reported, citing court documents.

Saipov said the judgments made in the courtroom were “not important” to him because they were “not Allah’s judgments,” according to the New York Times.

Earlier, he had pleaded not guilty through his lawyer to the latest indictment in the Oct. 31 truck attack near the World Trade Center.

Saipov’s Halloween day attack was the deadliest in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.

A prosecutor said the Justice Department will decide by the end of the summer whether to seek the death penalty against Saipov, who lived in Paterson, N.J., before the attack.

Defense lawyers have said the government should accept a guilty plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole to provide victims' families and the public with closure.

David Patton, a lawyer for Saipov, said he would need extra time to make legal challenges to the charges if death is sought.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will ultimately decide whether to seek the death penalty for Saipov by September, according to the Daily News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> The Uzbek national accused of killing eight people by driving a speeding truck along a New York City bike path last October spoke of a “war” led by Islamic State at a pre-trial hearing on Friday and dismissed the court’s judgment as not important.

The statement by Sayfullo Saipov, a legal permanent resident of the United States, came at the end of a hearing at which U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick set an Oct. 7, 2019, trial date in the case.

“The judgments that are made here are not important for me,” Saipov, 30, said through an interpreter. “They are not Allah’s judgments.”

Saipov continued speaking even after Broderick interrupted to remind him that anything he said could be used against him.

“The Islamic State, in order to impose sharia (Islamic law) on Earth, is leading a war,” Saipov said. He had previously told law enforcement that he was inspired by the militant group.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Saipov. Saipov’s lawyers have proposed a plea deal in which he would accept life in prison to avoid the death penalty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle said at Friday’s hearing that Saipov’s attorneys are scheduled to meet with the U.S. Department of Justice on July 23 as part of the decision-making process on the death penalty.

 A final decision is expected by September, she said.

Saipov was arrested immediately after police said he plowed a truck down a bike lane on Manhattan’s West Side. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest assault on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.

On Nov. 21, Saipov was charged in an indictment with eight counts of murder, 12 counts of attempted murder, one count of providing material support to Islamic State and one count of violence and destruction of a motor vehicle resulting in death. He pleaded not guilty on Nov. 28.

On Tuesday, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment adding six charges of attempted murder and charges of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. Saipov pleaded not guilty to those charges at Friday’s hearing.

Following the attack, Saipov told investigators he was inspired by watching Islamic State videos and began planning the attack a year earlier, according to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors the day after the attack. </s> Turkish police have detained hundreds of suspected ISIL members in nationwide raids, according to state media, in the largest operations in the country to target the armed group.

About 820 suspects, most of them foreign nationals, were arrested in at least 29 provinces, including capital Ankara and southeastern provinces, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Operations took place on Sunday and Monday.

"This is the largest coordinated and simultaneous raids that Turkey has taken out on what it says are 'suspected members of ISIL' across the country," Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep, said.

READ MORE: Turkey, US-coalition jets 'kill 47 ISIL fighters'

She added that the operation signalled Turkey's clear intentions to give a "message that it is clamping down" on the armed group.

"Turkey has suffered multiple attacks either claimed by ISIL or inspired by it," Dekker said.

The Turkish government holds ISIL, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS, responsible for several attacks in Turkey.

Most recently, ISIL claimed responsibility for a New Year's Eve attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul in which 39 people were killed.

Police arrested the suspected attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre.

Turkish troops are also engaged in battles against ISIL fighters in the Syrian town of al-Bab, in the fiercest fighting yet of Ankara's military's campaign inside Syria that started in August.

At least 48 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the incursion so far, according to an AFP news agency tally. </s> New York, June 23 (IANS) The suspect in one of New York’s deadliest terror attack was arraigned on new charges — six counts of attempted murder in addition to 22 charges filed earlier — over the 2017 incident that left eight people dead.

On Friday, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov entered a plea of not guilty, according to according Nicholas Biase, spokesman for the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

A trial date for Saipov has been set for October 7, 2019, CNN quoted Biase as saying.

Saipov allegedly drove a pickup truck down a bicycle path near the World Trade Centre on October 31, 2017.

He was arrested after the truck hit a school bus, stopping it in its tracks. He exited the vehicle and an officer shot him.

Saipov was originally indicted on eight counts of murder in aid of racketeering, 12 counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering, one count of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and one count of violence and destruction of a motor vehicle.

The new charges of attempted murder — filed in an indictment this week — bring the total number of federal charges against him to 28.

Saipov had immigrated to the US from Uzbekistan in 2010.
Abdulkadir Masharipov is charged with murder in relation to the shootings in Istanbul that killed 39 people and is remanded in custody. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has claimed responsibility for the shootings.