A chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals (Yargıtay) on Tuesday announced the final verdict on prison sentences for a Daesh gunman who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub in 2017.
The third chamber of the court upheld 40 instances of aggravated life imprisonment for Abdulkadir Masharipov, who is accused of the 2017 massacre on New Year’s Eve in Reina, a popular venue among revelers.
The chamber also upheld an additional 1,368 years of prison terms for Masharipov, who was charged with violation of the Constitution related to terrorism offenses and deliberate manslaughter. Lesser prison terms for the convicted accused of aiding Masharipov’s attack were also upheld by the chamber, while verdicts were annulled for 13 other defendants in the trial on the massacre.
An Istanbul court issued verdicts for Masharipov and others in September 2020, and the verdicts were taken to a higher court for appeals.
The third chamber revoked verdicts for Ilyas Mamasharipov, who was sentenced after he was identified as the mastermind of the attack. The chamber said Mamasharipov should be tried on charges of membership of a terrorist group. Verdicts for 11 defendants were annulled on the grounds of excessive sentencing and lack of evidence.
Masharipov, 34 at the time of the attack, was arrested at a Daesh hideout in the residential Istanbul neighborhood of Esenyurt after a 17-day manhunt. He was among 18 defendants detained as part of the case. Other than Ilyas Mamasharipov, most of the other defendants have either evaded justice as fugitives or been released pending trial.
Masharipov has been mostly silent during the hearings, and in his first oral defense, he denied the charges against him, claiming he was not the attacker despite mounting evidence against him.
Other defendants in the case include Daesh suspects charged with having instructed him to carry out the attack, having helped him hide from authorities while on the run or being fellow members of the terrorist group. Prosecutors asked for 40 back-to-back life sentences for Masharipov for the killing of 39 people, as well as on the charge of “attempt to overthrow the constitutional order” – the crime with the highest sentence under the Turkish penal code. Additional charges against the suspect included membership to a terrorist group, attempted murder and violation of the Firearms Law, which carry prison terms ranging from seven to a combined 2,370 years.
Turkish authorities said that since June 2023, more than 3,600 people with suspected ties to the terrorist group have been arrested.
Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terrorism for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups and was one of the first countries to declare it as a terrorist group in 2013. In December 2023, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with Daesh, who were planning attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy.
Terrorists from Daesh and other groups, such as the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. Turkish authorities have ordered the freezing of millions of lira worth of assets since 2013 to crack down on terrorism financiers in line with U.N. sanctions.