Officers indicted for neglect in 2015 blast


Prosecutors charged 14 police officers for abuse of duty for failing to take measures prior to a 2015 terror attack in the southeastern Turkey that killed four people.

The officers face prison terms of up to one year. A court in Diyarbakır province, where the attack occurred, approved the indictment on Friday.

The defendants include police chiefs and their subordinates who are accused of not properly searching the courtyard of a school where explosives used in the attack were hidden.

They are also accused of failing to properly check the identification of Orhan Gönder, the perpetrator of the attack who was wanted for dodging compulsory conscription before carrying out the attack. Prosecutors say police officers did not run his name through the police database when they checked on him in the hotel he was staying in Diyarbakır before the attack.

The bombing attack in Diyarbakır which targeted an opposition party rally was one of the early attacks by the terrorist group Daesh in Turkey. Gönder and his accomplices were captured shortly after the attack.