ISTANBUL: An Istanbul court on Friday dropped a case against four top former Israeli commanders who were being tried in absentia over the 2010 deadly storming of a Turkish ship bound for Gaza, a lawyer said.

An arrest warrant for the four was also withdrawn, Gulden Sonmez, a lawyer for the victims, wrote on Twitter after a closed door hearing in Istanbul.

Mustafa Ozbek, a spokesman for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) charity which organised the bid in 2010 to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, confirmed that the case had been withdrawn.

Ten Turkish citizens lost their lives as a result of the raid that saw Israeli commandos storm the Mavi Marmara ship. But dropping the charges was a key pillar of a deal agreed between Israel and Turkey this June to normalise bilateral ties.

Published in Dawn December 10th, 2016