MESOP NEWS : TORTURED BY “JUSTICE” – Suspect in Istanbul Rampage on New Year’s Is Captured, Turkey Says

The suspect in the New Year’s Day attack in Istanbul, Turkey, was arrested on Monday. Credit Turkish Police, via Depo Photos
The police in Turkey have arrested the man accused of carrying out a deadly attack on an Istanbul nightclub early on New Year’s Day, killing 39 people, including a police officer and 25 foreigners, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency as well as Turkish news reports.

The news agency said that a police raid on a residence in the outlying Esenyurt district of Istanbul had resulted in the capture of Abdulgadir Masharipov, whom the authorities described as an Islamic State militant of Uzbek nationality, along with four other people. The others were a man of Kyrgyz nationality and three women, whose nationalities were not given, Anadolu said.

Turkish news organizations posted photographs of the suspect in custody, showing him bruised and with fresh blood on his clothing and face. He had reportedly been injured while carrying out the deadly attack on the Reina nightclub on the Bosporus. An estimated 69 people were wounded by the attacker, who went on a shooting rampage with a rapid-fire rifle inside the crowded and popular venue.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack the next day and said in a statement that it had been carried out “in continuation of the blessed operations that the Islamic State is conducting against Turkey, the protector of the cross.”

The Turkish authorities quickly identified the suspect from closed-circuit television, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring him to justice.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, posted a Twitter message congratulating the country’s interior minister on the arrest.“In the name of our nation, I thank primarily our minister, Suleyman Soylu, our police and intelligence organizations who captured Reina assailant,” he wrote.

The district where the suspect was captured, Esenyurt, on the European side of Istanbul, is a former slum that has been rapidly redeveloped with new apartment blocks housing many refugees and migrants. Turkish news reports said Mr. Masharipov was with his 4-year-old son when he was captured, and news video showed one of the suspects being attacked at the arrest scene. The suspect identified as a Kyrgyz national was seen lying handcuffed on the ground, with a police officer’s boot holding his head down.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/world/europe/turkey-suspect-captured.html?emc=edit_ee_20170117&nl=todaysheadlines-europe&nlid=73143833&_r=0