(Changes source, adds details) ANKARA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced a lawyer to life in prison for killing a top judge in 2006 in a case which fuelled tensions between the government and the secular establishment, state news agency Anatolian said. Alparslan Arslan had said previously he acted in protest against a ban on the Muslim headscarf in schools and universities. The attack in May 2006 inside the Council of State, the top administrative court, shocked Turkey and sparked mass secular protests against the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party. The courts, part of Turkey's powerful secular establishment, had strongly supported the headscarf ban. Parliament lifted the ban on female students wearing Muslim headscarves in university on Saturday in a landmark move which has revived tensions between the government and secularists. Arslan received two life sentences for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and to establish an armed group. During the trial Arslan had been quoted as saying that the aim of the attack was to punish the "shameful actions against God's religion, the Prophet and Muslims," adding that he was trying to bring sharia law to Turkey. He had also been quoted as saying he planned to kill the then-president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch defender of the secular order. In last year's gun attack, Arslan killed one judge and wounded four others. Arslan has also been charged with bombing the secularist newspaper Cumhuriyet. Nine people in total were on trial for the two attacks, and three others besides Arslan received life sentences for their involvement. Three were acquitted. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had previously suggested the courthouse attack was the work of a shadowy right-wing group aiming to discredit his government and its efforts to boost religious freedoms in Turkey. (Reporting by Thomas Grove; Editing by Charles Dick)
A man smokes as he plays a game with his friends in a cafe in Ankara January 17, 2008. Turkey is the eighth biggest cigarette market in the world, with nearly ...
