ISTANBUL, Oct 28 (AFP) - An Istanbul tribunal on Thursday sentenced 10 alleged members of an underground left-wing organization to life imprisonment for the murders here 12 years ago of six policemen, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The 10 men, alleged members of an outlawed group known as Dev-Sol (Revolutionary Left), were accused of involvement in three separate armed attacks targeting policemen here between April and November 1992 in which eight other officers were wounded.
The court said in its verdict that it had found the men guilty of "attempting to change the constitutional order by force of arms."
It dropped charges against 20 other defendants for limitation of criminal proceedings and ruled itself incompetent to try one defendant who was underage at the time of the killings.
Dev-Sol, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, renamed itself the Revolutionary Popular Liberation Party/Front (DHKPC) in the mid-1990s.
It targeted mainly active and retired military and security personnel, as well as US and NATO interests.
Early Thursday, a five-man commando believed to belong to the DHKP/C attacked the Beyoglu courthouse in downtown Istanbul with homemade explosives, leaving behind a banner protesting prison conditions in Turkey.
10/28/2004 13:35 GMT - AFP