Officials said Saturday that the suicide bomber who targeted the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey had been imprisoned for several years on terrorism charges before being ultimately released after being diagnosed with a brain disorder caused by a hunger strike, according to the Associated Press.
Forty-year-old Ecevit Sanli killed himself and a Turkish security guard at the embassy on Friday.
From the AP:
Officials said Sanli was arrested in 1997 for alleged involvement in attacks on Istanbul’s police headquarters and a military guesthouse and jailed on charges of membership in the group.
While in prison awaiting trial, he took part in a major hunger strike that led to the deaths of dozens of inmates, according to a statement from the Ankara governor’s office. The protesters opposed a maximum-security system in which prisoners were held in small cells instead of large wards.
Sanli was diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and released on probation in 2001, following the introduction of legislation that allowed hunger strikers with the disorder to get appropriate treatment. The syndrome is a malnutrition-related brain illness that affects vision, muscle coordination and memory and that can cause hallucinations.
Sanli fled Turkey after his release and was wanted by Turkish authorities. He was convicted in absentia in 2002.
