A 10-month sentence suspended for five years was handed down by a Turkish court to two arrested after they unfurled a flag inside the monument (now a mosque) on April 9
According to what has become known, the flag displayed a Byzantine symbol (the double-headed eagle) and the slogan “Orthodoxy or death”.
The suspended sentence means that the two convicts will not serve a custodial sentence and will immediately return to Greece after completing the prescribed procedures.
The convicts are a 42-year-old woman from a village in Sparta and her 35-year-old cousin from Australia, who were visiting Istanbul with a small group.
According to what has become known, the two of them were arrested in their hotel, after their act was recorded by a security camera.
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