ISTANBUL - One of the detainees arrested in investigation launched for suicide bomb attack on the Free and Accepted Masons Grand Lodge Association in Kartal district of Istanbul, confessed that he killed dentist Yasef Yahya, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said Tuesday.
In a news conference, Guler recalled that in an earlier press release, the Police Department said that one of the guns found in the Masonic Lodge in Kartal after the suicide attack was used in killing of a dentist named Yasef Yahya in Sisli district of Istanbul on August 21, 2003.
Guler said 18 people were arrested over the past week in raids of Istanbul homes. Eight of those arrested were still being interrogated, while another 10 were to be formally charged later Tuesday, Guler said.
Guler said the detainees in their interrogation confessed that they killed Yasef Yahya, the Jewish origin dentist, on August 21, 2003.
Guler said the detainees also confessed that they planned the armed and suicide bomb attacks on Free and Accepted Masons Grand Lodge Association in Kartal district of Istanbul on March 9, 2004. The detainees confessed that they got political and military training in camps abroad.
Guler said, ''apart from the equipment obtained on the spot on March 9, new bombs ready to explode, were seized in police operations.''
(AY-AÖ) 16.03.2004