ISIL operated ‘madrasah’ in Turkish capital: Indictment

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) operated a so-called madrasah in the capital Ankara, according to an indictment against alleged members of the jihadist group.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office prepared the indictment into 16 suspects, of whom six are under arrest and one is a fugitive, over “being members of an armed terrorist organization” after it was revealed that ISIL used the office of the Tevhid Magazine, located in the city’s Etimesgut district, to “train” 60 children.

According to the 82-page indictment, the existence of the now-closed madrasah was determined while authorities were carrying out works on ISIL activities in Ankara.

The indictment also states that jailed ISIL militant Halis Bayancuk, code-named “Abu Hanzala,” went to the madrasah once a month to convey the jihadist ideology to young children, who were not enrolled in any other schools, upon the decision of their parents.

A separate investigation is ongoing into the families who “didn’t like the state’s education system and rather preferred Islamic education,” the indictment added.

Also in Ankara, a court has ruled for the continuation of arrests of the suspects in the case into the ISIL double suicide attack on Oct. 10, 2015, which targeted a peace rally and killed 102 people.

During the sixth hearing on Nov. 23, the Ankara Fourth Heavy Penal Court issued its interim ruling regarding the case, which has 36 suspects in total. It also adjourned the hearing to Jan. 31, 2018.