Al Qaida gets a reprieve

last updated 8 January 2015

Istanbul

The trial of 69 suspected al Qaida members in Turkey was abruptly canceled this week, on its opening day, after the court realized it had no authority to hear the case. Legal changes made last month to bring Turkey’s judicial system in line with E.U. norms abolished the system of “political courts,” which were originally set up in the 1980s to try Kurdish militants. The trial has been postponed until new tribunals are established. The 69 men are suspected of involvement in the near-simultaneous bombing of two synagogues and two British targets in Istanbul last November, in which 61 people died and more than 600 were injured.