A Turkish court handed down four death sentences in...

A Turkish court handed down four death sentences in a case stemming from a car bomb attack that killed three people and seriously injured a provincial governor in 1999, the state news agency Anatolian said.
Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, changed its constitution in 2001 to outlaw the death penalty except for cases of "terrorism" or in times of war or serious danger of war. The state has had a moratorium on capital punishment since 1984 but it remains on the statute books, something the EU says must change before Ankara can start membership negotiations.
The death sentences are unlikely to be carried out.
A leftist guerrilla group called the Turkish Workers and Peasants Liberation Army (TIKKO) claimed responsibility for the attack that targeted Cankiri Governor Ayhan Cevik, who had previously worked in a province where the group was active.
Founded in the mid-1970s, TIKKO has carried out a number of bomb attacks and kidnappings of state officials.