A Turkish suicide bomber who survived a deadly attack on a masonic lodge in Istanbul earlier this month has expressed repentance but denied membership of any outlawed group, the media reported here Tuesday. Engin Vural, still in hospital recovering from loss of an arm and serious abdominal injuries, confessed to a prosecutor on his sickbed to having received training on bomb-making in a camp in Pakistan controlled by the al-Qaeda terrorist network, the NTV news channel reported.
| I hope it came with a money-back guarantee... |
Vural, however, denied that he belonged to the group or other outlawed organisation, the report said.
| "No, no! Certainly not! (I ain't doin' no 50 years in a Turkish prison with only one arm and a colostomy bag...)" |
He said he and a fellow bomber killed in the blast had planned the March 9 attack together with Adem Cetinkaya, another suspected Islamist whom police have arrested. Vural told the prosecutor that Cetinkaya had supplied them with the weapons and explosives used in the attack, which killed a waiter and injured five freemasons, Anatolia news agency reported. |
2004-03-25 12:15:57 PM