The verdict was announced in the case of the Ankara massacre, in which 103 people lost their lives and 391 people, including 20 children, were wounded during a peace rally at Train Station Square on 10 October 2015.

Ankara 4th High Criminal Court sentenced imprisoned defendants Yakup Şahin, Hakan Şahin, Resul Demir, İbrahim Halil Alçay, Hacı Ali Durmaz, Erman Ekici, Talha Güneş, Hüseyin Tunç, Metin Akaltın to 100 times aggravated life imprisonment each for "willful killing of 100 people" and one time aggravated life imprisonment each for "disrupting the constitutional order". The court also sentenced each of the defendants to 18 years 379 times for "attempted intentional killing" of those wounded.

The court acquitted Erman Ekici despite the Court of Cassation ruling that he should be sentenced for committing a crime against humanity. The court did not give a ruling for the other defendants on this charge.

The court decided to maintain the arrest warrant for 16 fugitive defendants and to separate the case file of those defendants.

Background of the case

The indictment prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on the 10 October massacre was accepted by the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court on 13 July 2016 and the first hearing was held on 7 November 2016.

As a result of the trial, the court concluded the case on 3 August 2018 and sentenced 9 defendants to 101 times aggravated life imprisonment, once for "violating the constitutional order" and 100 times for "intentional killing of 100 people" and decided to separate the case against 16 fugitive defendants.

While Erman Ekici was sentenced to 18 years in prison for "leading an armed terrorist organisation", a criminal complaint was filed for his prosecution on charges of "violating the constitutional order", "intentional killing of 100 people" and "attempted murder" of the complainants who were injured in the terrorist act.

The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation had partially overturned the case in respect of some defendants. The chamber also overturned the conviction of Ekici on charges of "establishing and leading an armed terrorist organisation" and ruled that Ekici be tried for "intentional killing" and "crime against humanity".

Ankara 4th High Criminal Court merged the case against Ekici, the case against 16 fugitive defendants related to the attack and the cases against 9 people. The number of defendants in the trial thus increased to 26.