A Turkish court on Saturday ordered the release of seven suspects in the trial over the deadly New Year attack on an İstanbul nightclub following an initial series of hearings.
The court in İstanbul ruled that seven could go free under judicial control. It said 44 suspects -- including the self-confessed attacker Uzbek citizen Abdulkadir Masharipov -- must stay in jail.
Masharipov, who was present for the hearings, has refused to testify although the court heard from his wife who is also on trial and denied all knowledge of the plot.
The deadly attack on the Reina nightclub killed 39 people, most of them foreigners, who were celebrating the start of 2017. The Islamic State group, which at the time controlled swathes of neighbouring Iraq and Syria, claimed the attack. It remains the only time it has issued an unequivocal claim for an attack in Turkey.
