Belgian prosecutor seeks 30-year sentence for fugitive

BRUSSELS

A Belgian prosecutor on Monday asked for a 30-year jail term for an ultra-leftist terrorist fugitive wanted for several crimes in Turkey, including the 1996 murders of three people.

A court in Bruges on Monday said it would pass sentence on Turkish national Fehriye Erdal on Jan. 2.

Erdal -- a member of the terrorist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) -- absconded from house arrest in Belgium in 2006 and remains at large.

Although she was not present at her trial, the same court in May ruled that Erdal should be judged in Belgium for crimes committed in Turkey.

The extradition from Belgium of Erdal has long been sought by Ankara.

At the May hearing, the prosecution said Erdal would face charges of murdering Sabanci Holding board member Ozdemir Sabanci, Toyota Turkey General Manager Haluk Gorgun and his secretary Nilgun Hasefe.

Sabanci, Gorgun and Hasefe were shot dead at Istanbul’s Sabanci Center on 9 Jan. 1996. Erdal was an employee at the center and allegedly helped her accomplices gain access to the building.

Police identified the culprits in the 1996 murder as Erdal, Ismail Akkol and Mustafa Duyar. Duyar was jailed and later killed in a prison riot in 1999. Erdal and Akkol became fugitives.

Akkol was re-captured in February this year. After a 1999 fire at a building in Knokke, Belgium, where she was staying, Erdal was detained for having a fake passport.

After serving around a year in prison, she was put under house arrest but fled in March 2006. Belgian authorities had refused to extradite Erdal to Turkey during her time in custody.

*Reporting by Hasan Esen; Writing by Ilker Girit