A central figure in the suicide bombing of an Istanbul synagogue was captured while trying to slip into Iran, police said yesterday. He was charged with trying to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order" — an offense equivalent to treason.

The suspect, whose name was not released, is believed to have given the order to carry out the Nov. 15 truck bombing of the Beth Israel synagogue — one of four suicide attacks that killed 61 persons in Turkey in November, Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said...

...Western and Turkish officials say the suicide attacks bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. Newspapers have said some of the bombers had been trained at the group's camps in Afghanistan or Iran.

In the past, authorities have accused Tehran of backing radical Islamic groups in Turkey, and said that members of an Islamic radical group suspected in a series of killings trained in Iran and received support from its government.

American counterterrorism officials said last month that a few senior al Qaeda operatives who fled to Iran after the Afghan war may have developed a working relationship with a secretive military unit linked to Iran's religious hard-liners.

Iran has said it has some al Qaeda operatives in custody, but has refused to identify them or provide other details.

A London-based Arabic newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, reported Friday that a man backed by Iran and linked in the past to the radical group Hezbollah was behind the Istanbul bombings.