Foreign Desk Report
ANKARA: Six suspects, including four Russians, have been jailed pending trial over an alleged plot against Chechen dissidents in Turkey, foreign media reports said on Thursday.
According to details, the suspects have been held on charges of “political and military espionage,” the station said. They had been preparing “armed action and spying” against Chechen opposition figures. “It is alleged that the suspects were preparing armed actions targeting Chechen dissidents in Turkey and that they were engaged in obtaining guns and planning these acts”, reports said, adding that the suspects also include one Ukrainian and one Uzbek national.
The reports said they were initially detained in the Mediterranean province of Antalya on Oct. 8 in an investigation led by prosecutors in Istanbul. They are being held in Istanbul’s Maltepe prison. The espionage charge carries a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.
Many dissidents from across the Middle East and Central Asia have established bases in Turkey and are occasionally targeted.
