ISTANBUL, Sept 3 (AFP) - The teenage son of a suicide bomber who perished in four massive attacks in Istanbul last year and two journalists risk up to three years in jail in the first case over anti-Semitism in Muslim Turkey, judicial and Jewish sources said Friday.
Prosecutor Ali Cakir told AFP he would be seeking between one and three years in prison for Nurullah Kuncak, 17, over a newspaper interview in which he commended twin suicide attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul on November 15.
His father, Ilyas Kuncak, was one of the two suicide drivers who detonated truck bombs five days later at the British consulate and the HSBC bank in Turkey's biggest city.
The blasts, blamed on a local cell linked to the Al-Qaeda network, claimed 63 lives and caused mass destruction.
Turkey's Jewish community, which numbers some 35,000 people, has lived in peace with the Muslim majority for centuries, but the synagogue attacks raised concerns that anti-Semitic sentiment may be on the rise in the country.
Cakir said he had indicted Kuncak under an article punishing those who "openly incite people to hatred on the grounds of differences of social class, race, religion, sect or region, in a way that may endanger public order."
Kuncak told the Milliyet daily in December that his family was unmoved after the synagogue attacks because Jews were the target.
"I cannot say we were happy but we were pleased... If Muslims had not been killed as well I would have been happy.
"We do not love them at all. My father thought the same. Nobody will love them if we tell about the situation of Palestine," he said.
The prosecutor said he had also indicted the journalist who interviewed the teenager, Elif Korap, and editor Eren Guvener, on the grounds that had helped in disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda by publishing the interview.
"I'm not aware of any similar case in the past," Cakir said.
The spokesman of Istanbul's chief rabbinate confirmed that the case was the first related to anti-Semitism in Turkey and welcomed the move.
"This may constitute a turning point... I guess Turkish authorities have become more sensitive on the issue as part of efforts to align with European Union norms," Silvio Ovadia told AFP.
The trial of the three suspects started in June, overshadowed by the main trial over the suicide attacks.
The case progressed little in the first two hearings because of procedural reasons. The next hearing is set for December 3, a lawyer for the journalists said.