An Ankara court convicted Kasım Güler of leading an armed terrorist group, instead of prosecuting the man known as the Islamic State’s (ISIS) Turkey amir for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, news website T24 reported.
Güler was captured in Syria and brought to Turkey in 2021, and was initially charged with attempting to overthrow the constitutional order after confessing to extensive plans to attack prominent opposition figures and the US military base in southern Turkey.
The court dismissed the initial charge, which called for life in prison without parole, and sentenced the jihadist commander to 21 years in prison for leading an armed terrorist group, and another nine years for illegal possession of controlled substances and firearms. While the conviction happened in March, the court released detailed documents on the verdict in June.
“The court has reached the opinion that the suspect’s actions included in the case file constitute as a whole the crime of administering an armed terrorist organisation,” the judge said.
The court had petitioned information on ISIS activity in Turkey after 2018, and received a response from the police anti-terror directorate that ISIS members had not carried out any actions on Turkish soil after 1 January 2017.
Among the worst ISIS attacks in Turkey are the suicide bombings at a youth organisation in Şanlıurfa (Rîha) along Turkey’s border with Syria in July 2015, known as the Suruç Massacre, and at a united opposition organised rally for peace in the capital in the following October, known as the Ankara Train Station Massacre. A total of 143 people were killed in the two acts of terrorism, and more than 600 were injured.
Güler himself had been planning attacks against main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The jihadist was also planning to target Turkey’s LGBT community and tourism spots in Capadocia, as well as houses of worship for religious minorities in the country.
