Defendants of Mersin attack face aggravated life sentences

MERSİN

A local court has requested two aggravated life sentences and up to 227 years in prison for each of the 10 defendants involved in last year’s attack on a police station in the southern province of Mersin in which a police officer was killed.

On Sept. 26, 2022, two women related to the PKK terror group arrived at the police station with a luxury car and opened fire with long-barreled weapons on police officers standing guard in front of the station.

A police officer was killed, while two officers were injured during the first shooting, after which the woman detonated the bombs they carried in their backpacks.

One of the assailants was identified as Dilşah Ercan, known by the code-name Zozan Tolan, who joined the PKK in 2013 in Mersin.

During the hearing on July 27, the suspects, who were identified as aiding two terrorists who carried out the attack, denied the allegations.

Two of the defendants, who were found to have driven the two attackers from the distant district of Tarsus to the Mezitli district where they carried out the attack, claimed they did not know the women.

Each of the defendants were sentenced to two aggravated life sentences and up to 227 years in prison on seven separate charges, mainly terrorism-related offenses.