Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has upheld sentences handed down to a gunman convicted of carrying out a massacre at a nightclub in İstanbul on New Year’s Day in 2017 along with 31 other defendants, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The terrorist attack at the Reina nightclub claimed the lives of 39 people. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Fifty-seven suspects were named in the indictment, including the attacker, Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek citizen who was arrested in İstanbul after a lengthy manhunt in January 2017.
At the end of a three-year trial in September 2020, Masharipov was handed down the equivalent of 40 life sentences on conviction of “murder” and “violating the constitution.“ He also received an additional 1,368-year sentence for the attempted murder of 79 people who were injured in the attack and for carrying a weapon without a license.
Another man, Ilyas Mamasaripov, was sentenced to more than 1,400 years in prison for helping plan the shooting.
Forty-eight defendants were also sentenced to prison for membership in a terrorist organization, while 11 others were acquitted.
The top appeals court, which reviewed the appeals of 48 defendants, upheld the sentences of 32 defendants, while it reversed the sentences handed down to 13 of the defendants including Mamasaripov.
Citizens of Israel, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Belgium, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were among the victims of the attack when Masharipov randomly fired at them with an automatic rifle just minutes into New Year’s Day.
Reina, which was one of the most popular nightclubs in İstanbul, was demolished by municipal workers later in 2017.