£1m Turkey terrorism payout for Britons

A British family caught in a terrorist bombing while on holiday in 2005 win a landmark compensation case and are awarded more than £1m by the Turkish government. Helen Bennett, from Spennymoor, who was 21, was one of five people killed in the attack on a tourists’ mini-bus in the resort of Kusadasi on 16 July 2005.

Five members of Miss Bennett’s family, including her fiancé, Stephen Stables, were injured in the explosion. Other family members suffered “horrific injuries”, including limb and muscle damage, hearing loss and psychological flashbacks. Lawyers had argued that the extent of their injuries meant many would never work again and would require special care needs for the rest of their lives.

Today, after a two-year legal battle, the family have been told they will be awarded more than £1m, which will be paid by the Turkish government. Sharon Holden, Miss Bennett’s mother, told Channel 4 News that the family had been “let down” by the British government, which does not currently compensate victims who suffer at the hands of terrorists abroad.

“We have been let down and are still being let down by our own government, which effectively turned its back on us. We were left on our own. Four years on and the Turkish government has done what our own government should have done for us,” said Mrs Holden.

The family was on a minibus which was ferrying tourists to a nearby beach when a member of the Kurdish extremist group, the PKK, boarded, placed a bag full of explosives under a seat, and got off again. Mrs Holden said: “The bus pulled away again and it only drove for another minute when he used his mobile phone to detonate the bomb.” The passengers, including Miss Bennett, were thrown from the bus amid the blast. The roof was torn off and debris littered the street.

Mrs Holden said that when they returned to the UK they saw news reports on television of how the victims of the 7 July 2005 bombings, which occurred a week earlier, were being offered compensation. “We got a letter from the Criminal Compensation Board telling us that we weren’t entitled because the scheme didn’t extend to terrorist acts abroad. We were on our own.”

Jill Greenfield, a lawyer specialising in compensation for victims of terrorist atrocities abroad, took on the case. She discovered that Turkey had a compensation scheme and agreed to prepare papers for a claim. “We found out that the Turkish authorities had a scheme and I prepared the papers.

“Eventually we were told that the family was eligible, but it amounted to a few thousands pounds only. That clearly wasn’t going to be good enough, so we set about reviewing their own scheme, effectively a judicial review, to see if they could be eligible for more.”

In July this year the Turkish authorities hinted that they were going to issue a judgement in the case and that the award was likely to be “around £1m”. Today it was officially announced. But Mrs Greenfield says the UK government needs to introduce a compensation scheme for those injuries in terror attacks abroad.

“The government say they are going to introduce a scheme that’s going to help British victims caught in terrorist atrocities but, in fact, I’m yet to see the details, yet to see confirmation that it’s going to happen. “Individuals should not be paying the price for what in essence is an attack on society. It ought to be the government taking responsibility, appreciating that these people are the victims of what is, in essence, a political issue. Otherwise you let the terrorist win.

“It’s a glaring gap in our political position in the world. We are such a target for terrorism, we have been for a long time, but you don’t go on holiday and expect to get into a minibus and get blown up, which is what happened here.” A Ministry of Justice spokesman told Channel 4 News: “The working group have put forward proposals to provide further support for British victims of terrorism abroad and ministers are considering them.” Source – channel 4

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Category: World