Ahmet Güneş was arrested during a roadside stop in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, on March 25, 2014. Searches of the car he was travelling in and his home unearthed documents related to the Islamic State, including footage of Güneş shooting an alleged Syrian member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Latakia, Syria.
Footage of Güneş receiving weapons and explosives training at an Islamic State (ISIS) camp in Syria was also discovered by the police.
Güneş, along with Mustafa Delibaşlar, who was driving the car at the time of their arrest, and Ökkeş Durmaz who was travelling with Güneş, were charged on April 22, 2014 with being members of a terrorist organization. On May 27, 2014, the additional charge of intentional murder was filed against Güneş.
Güneş argued in a preliminary court hearing that he killed the Syrian man out of concern for his own life and had no connections with the ISIS terrorist group.
The three suspects were released on October 30, 2014 pending trial. But none of them showed up at their trials and the police were unable to locate them.
The charges against Delibaşlar and Durmaz were dropped due to insufficient evidence and a travel ban on the two was lifted. But the trial of Güneş continued in absentia and the prosecutor sought a life sentence on the murder charge.
Güneş was found guilty of receiving training at an ISIS camp, murder, and joining a terrorist group. He was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison but the court reduced his sentence to six years and three months due to his “good conduct” during the trial process; a process he did not participate in as he failed to appear and the police could not locate him.
Güneş was one of 19 suspected militants monitored by Turkish police between 2012 and 2014, according to Hurriyet Daily News. He was suspected of helping to finance ISIS and is believed to be currently in Syria.
Delibaşlar, the driver of the car arrested with Güneş who had the charges against him dropped, was one of the suspects in a double bombing outside Ankara’s central railway station on October 10, 2015. The blast killed 103 and is the deadliest terror attack in modern Turkish history.
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