Turkish court sentences Syrian woman to life in prison for bombing in Istanbul in 2022

The Turkish court has sentenced a Syrian woman to life in prison for a deadly explosion on a busy shopping district in Istanbul in 2022.

Alham Albashir was given seven consecutive life sentences after being convicted on terrorism charges, ABC News reports citing Türkiye's state-run news agency.

The blast on November 13, 2022 tore through Istiklal Avenue, a thoroughfare in Istanbul lined with shops and restaurants, killing six people, including two children, and wounding 99 others.

Albashir and a man named as Bilal el-Hacmaus were intelligence operatives of the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia group, and its political branch, the PYD, according to an indictment prepared by Istanbul prosecutors last year.

Türkiye regards the YPG as the Syrian arm of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency within Türkiye to establish an autonomous region in southeastern Türkiye.

Albashir and el-Hamaus were given special training by the YPG and PYD and sent to Türkiye along with explosives, where they traveled to Istanbul with the help of a network established by the organization, the indictment said. El-Hacmaus managed to flee the country.

The fight between the PKK and Türkiye has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s and Türkiye and its Western allies have labelled PKK a terrorist organisation.