Turkey charges 'key bomb suspect'

About 30 people are being held in connection with the attacks

A Turkish court has charged a suspect in last month's suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul with attempting to overthrow the constitutional order by force.

Turkish police say the suspect is the link-man between Turkish militants and an international terrorist group.

Local media, naming him as Adnan Ersoz, have said he got instructions directly from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

More than 60 people died in the attacks which targeted two synagogues, a British bank and the British Consulate.

Police said the suspect was captured on Monday as he tried to enter Turkey.

They said he told interrogators that a Turkish cell had been established with links to "an international terrorist organisation", which provided military training abroad and money to carry out attacks.

Bin Laden link

The BBC's Jonny Dymond, in Istanbul, says Mr Ersoz is the most senior figure to have been detained in the investigation into the Istanbul bombing.

The four men who carried out the bombings are said to have been members of Hezbollah, a Turkish paramilitary organisation not connected with the Lebanese or Iranian Hezbollah groups.

The Turkish authorities believe that al-Qaeda approved, oversaw and financed the attacks.

The semi-official Anatolia news agency said Mr Ersoz told Turkey's anti-terrorism State Security Court that he went to Afghanistan in 1997, received military training there and met Bin Laden in 2001.

But Anatolia said he denied advance knowledge of the attacks or receiving orders from Bin Laden to carry them out.

Treason

Newspaper reports claimed earlier that Mr Ersoz had told police the cell wanted to attack a military base used by the United States in southern Turkey, but that security there was too tight.

The charge of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order is the equivalent of treason and carries a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

Turkish police have detained about 30 people in connection with the suicide attacks, including one of the alleged bomb-makers.

Three men identified by the media as co-leaders of the local cell, together with Adnan Ersoz, are believed to be abroad.