Turkey: Court asked to drop case against Israeli officials
Request comes on the heels of the recently signed Turkey-Israel reconciliation pact according to which Israel would pay compensation to those who died in the incident on the condition that Turkey drop cases against Israelis involved.
Under a deal reached this year, Israel agreed to pay $20 million in compensation to the those killed in a 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Turkish ship trying to breach the Gaza blockade by force.
The violence erupted soon after the Israeli navy called on the flotilla to stop and offered to bring the the goods to the port of Ashdod for inspection before being delivered to its intended recipients. When the activists refused to do so, Israeli commandos boarded the flotilla where they were set upon and attacked by the activists using iron bars.
According to recently signed pact, in return for the compensation, Israeli nationals would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.
The Israeli military officials, including the former military chief, were on trial in absentia in Istanbul, held responsible for the deaths of nine activists. A tenth victim died in a hospital in 2014.
