As the second anniversary of the Mavi Marmara,  Turkish officials remain tenacious in their quest to bring former Israel military commanders to trial, seeking 10 live sentences for each of them.

According to a front page report in the Turkish Sabah, “Israeli commanders will be arrested upon entering Turkey” as Turkish Prosecutor Ekinci has prepared an indictment seeking life sentences for four former IDF commanders over their alleged involvement in the 2010 killing of nine Turks on the Mavi Marmara Gaza-bound ship.

Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci has prepared a 144-page criminal indictment against former IDF Chief Gabi Ashkenazi, former Israel Navy Commander Eliezer Merom, former Chief of Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin and former IAF Intelligence Chief Avishai Levy.

The indictment lists ten Turks as being ‘killed’ in the raid, even though Oğuz Süleyman Söylemez remains in a persistent vegetative state. Fourteen heavily wounded and 61 lightly wounded Turkish nationals were also included in the indictment as ‘complainant-victims’. In addition, 189 wounded and 490 passengers from the United States, Spain, Italy and Israel were also added to the indictment under the ‘complainant-victim’ status. The indictment was completed just days prior to the May 31st anniversary of the tragic raid.

Prosecutor Ekinci has limited the list of suspects to the Israeli military members responsible for planning the attack, namely Ashkenazi and for staging the operation.

According to the information obtained, the first section of the indictment details the events that transpired. The second section evaluates the violent attack from an international legal standpoint. In this section, the principles listed in the Israeli prepared Turkel report on the Mavi Marmara raid are refuted one by one in light of international legal standards.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)