DHKP-C militant sentenced to 15 years in Belgium for killing head of leading Turkish holding Sabancı

A Belgian court sentenced on Feb. 20 outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) militant Fehriye Erdal to 15 years in jail and deprived her of civil and political rights for 10 years in absentia for crimes committed in Turkey, including being an accomplice in the 1996 assassination of the former head of the industrial conglomerate Sabancı Holding.

The Bruges Court of Serious Crimes announced its verdict on Erdal in absentia on Feb. 20 for crimes she committed in Turkey, ultimately sentencing her to 15 years in prison and depriving her of civil and political rights for 10 years. 

The judge also ordered Erdal's "urgent arrest," as the woman fled from house arrest in 2006.

Meanwhile, some DHKP-C supporters reacted to the decision, shouting pro-DHKP-C slogans outside the court, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

DHKP-C militants killed Sabancı; his secretary, Nilgün Hasefe; and ToyotaSA general manager Haluk Görgün at the headquarters of Sabancı Holding on Jan. 9, 1996, in one of the country's most notorious assassinations.

Following the assassination, Erdal was captured in Belgium in 1999, but she was later released. Turkey is still seeking her extradition, but her precise whereabouts remain a mystery.

İsmail Akkol, one of the other accomplices in the assassination, was initially tried in Greece but later released. He was arrested in February 2016 in Turkey when he entered the country by illegal means after two decades on the run. He pleaded not guilty in September 2016, facing an aggravated life sentence on charges of "attempting to change the constitutional order by force of arms."

A third DHKP-C militant, Mustafa Duyar, the only person convicted in the case, was killed in prison in...