Prosecutor launches probe into minister and police on Ankara bombing

Mesut Hasan BENLİ / ANKARA

AFP photo

An Ankara prosecutor has launched an investigation into Interior Minister Selami Altonok and several public servants for “neglect of duty” over the Oct. 10 suicide bombing in the Turkish capital that took the lives of 102 people. 

The probe follows a criminal complaint by the Ankara Bar Association, but according to the current laws the prosecutor does not have the right to conduct a direct investigation into public servants in charge of security.

The Ankara Bar filed a criminal complaint about the interior minister as well as Ankara Governor Mehmet Kılıçlar, Ankara Police Chief Kadri Kartal, the intelligence department chief, and other public servants to be determined by the prosecutor. It claimed that these officials did not take the necessary security measures at the central Ankara train station where thousands of people had gathered for a peace demonstration.   

The prosecutor will now send a complaint to the parliamentarian crimes investigation department, which must put forward a summary of proceedings in order to lift the immunity of Minister Altınok. 

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry must grant permission for the investigation of any security officials, and the court of cassation must grant permission to investigate the Ankara governor.