9:30am Wednesday 30th December 2009
By Catherine Priestley
A TERRORIST will end his life in prison after he was today convicted of planting a bomb in Turkey which killed five people, including a County Durham woman.
Mehmet Sirac Keskin was today found guilty of causing the fatal blast on a bus in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi, in July 2005.
Among the five people killed was 21-year-old trainee chef, Helyn Bennett, of Spennymoor. Several members of her family were injured.
Keskin, a member of the PKK terrorist organisation, was sentenced to six life sentences- one for the murder of each victim and one for attempting the separate a piece of land from the sovereignty of state.
The criminal court in Izmir also sentenced him to 161 years, one month and ten days in jail for related charges including being a member of an outlawed organisation, injuring 15 others in the blast and handling explosives.
For the full story read The Northern Echo tomorrow.
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