WARNING: Graphic imagery below.
Turkey's state-run news agency says prosecutors are seeking 35-year prison terms for two suspected human-smugglers held responsible for the drowning of the 3-year-old Syrian refugee boy, whose images helped focus the world's attention on the Syrian refugee crisis.
The Anadolu Agency says the prosecutor's office in the resort of Bodrum on Thursday accused the two Syrians of "deliberate negligence" and of migrant trafficking. Authorities were still trying to identify six other suspected smugglers.
Photos of Aylan Kurdi, who washed up dead on the beach in Bodrum in September, galvanized global sympathy for the refugees, leading some countries to ease restrictions on accepting migrants.
Aylan, his brother and mother were among five migrants who drowned when their boat capsized on the way to the Greek island of Kos.
#Syrian child on the shores of #Turkey .. . #heartbreaking pic.twitter.com/1pKqX19xBa— Said - Palestine (@saidshouib) September 2, 2015
They were making a desperate attempt at a new life with the very real knowledge that they may never make it to safety. This group of men, women and children never made it.