(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Istanbul court on Tuesday started prosecuting in absentia four former Israeli military commanders for involvement in deadly raid on Mavi Marmara, the flagship of a flotilla carrying some 590 pro-Palestinian activists en route to Gaza Srip, on May 31, 2010.
The Turkish judiciary will pursue the culprits until they are brought to justice, President of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation Bulent Yildirim vowed at a press conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are the real criminals as they ordered the Israeli naval commandos to commit this horrible crime, Yildirim pointed out.
The Turkish prosecution seeks life imprisonment for the four Israeli defendants but the possible ruling is expected to remain symbolic since Israel refuses trying or extraditing its militar personnel.
The flotilla, organized by the IHH, was meant to break the Israeli maritime seige on Gaza Strip.
Israeli naval commandos boarded the ships from speedboats and helicopters, killed nine activists including eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American, and wounded dozens of others. On last May 23 a tenth member of the flotilla succumbed to his injury after four years in a coma.
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