Five suspects have been indicted in Bulgaria for the November 13 attack in Istanbul, attributed by the authorities to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters and their allies in Syria, the prosecutor’s office announced on Saturday November 19. Bulgarian. They were charged “for helping” one of the alleged perpetrators of the attack to flee, said Siika Mileva, spokesperson for the Prosecutor General of Sofia.
Their role was ” logistics “, she said, adding that the prosecution had requested detention for four of them. According to local television channels, three are from Moldova and another from an Arab country, which is not specified.
Six people were killed and 81 others injured in the explosion, unclaimed at this stage, which occurred Sunday afternoon in a pedestrian artery in the heart of Istanbul.
The PKK and the YPG deny any involvement
Seventeen people were imprisoned in Turkey, including a 23-year-old young woman accused of having planted the bomb on a bench in Istiklal Avenue. Arrested in an apartment in the suburbs of Istanbul, Alham Albashir, presented as being of Syrian nationality, would have entered Turkey illegally from north-eastern Syria, according to the authorities, who affirm that she admitted the facts during her jail.
According to the official Anadolu news agency, citing the police report, she said she first came into contact with the PKK in 2017, through her ex-boyfriend. She would have kept a link with the organization after their 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.