A Turkish court on Monday (September 7th) sentenced an Uzbek convicted of carrying out an attack that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve to 40 life sentences on New Year's Eve 2017 to 40 life sentences, media reported.
Abdulkadir Masharipov, whose trial began at the end of 2017, received a total of 40 life sentences, one for each of the 39 people killed - including 27 foreigners - and one for the entire massacre claimed by the Islamic State group (EI), according to the state agency Anadolu.
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The attack on the posh Reina nightclub on the Bosphorus also left nearly 80 injured.
Abdulkadir Masharipov, who was arrested a fortnight after the attack, admitted to being the perpetrator.
But during a hearing of his trial in February 2019 he reconsidered his confession, affirming that he had not carried out the attack and that he was "
not the individual with a Kalashnikov in his hands
" seen at that time.
The Reina attack was the first in Turkey to be directly claimed by ISIS, although Ankara blamed it on other attacks.
The Reina nightclub was partially demolished in May 2017 by order of the Istanbul municipality for breach of town planning rules, without ever having reopened its doors.