Five Turks convicted of killing Christians in Malatya sentenced for life – but remain free

Five Turks convicted of killing Christians in Malatya sentenced for life – but remain free

Turkish Christians’ confidence in justice “severely wounded”

By Dan Wooding, Founder, ASSIST News Service

MALATYA, TURKEY (ANS – September 29, 2016) -- Nine years after three Christians were tortured with knives and murdered in southeast Turkey, the Criminal Court in the city of Malatya, where it happened, has convicted their five accused killers, sentencing each of them on September 28, 2016, to three consecutive life sentences in prison.

According to Barbara G. Baker of World Watch Monitor, news of the long-awaited verdicts in the notorious “Malatya massacre” case quickly flashed throughout the Turkish media at the conclusion of the trial’s 115th hearing. Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Abuzer Yildirim, Cuma Ozdemir and Hamit Ceker were all found guilty of premeditated murder, to be jailed for life without the possibility of parole.

“But most media outlets failed to report the court’s surprise ruling: that the now convicted killers would in fact still remain free, subject only to routine surveillance, while the case is being appealed before two higher courts,” said Baker.

“Arrested at the scene of the crime, the five young men had slit the throats of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Uğur Yüksel, and German Protestant Tilmann Geske in the Zirve publishing house in Malatya on April 18, 2007.

She went onto say that during the next seven years of trial proceedings, begun in November 2007, the defendants and their lawyers insisted the attack was an attempt to stop the “harmful activities” of missionaries who were allegedly trying to destroy the nation of Turkey and the honor of Islam. A major scandal soon broke out when the Interior Ministry was forced to open an investigation over alleged collusion of public officials and seriously flawed conduct by state prosecutors in the case.

Then in March 2014, the suspects’ release on bail under a newly-passed reform law shocked Turkey’s tiny Protestant community, despite assurances that the men would be held under house arrest. (Under Turkey’s now current Code of Criminal Procedure, a suspect cannot be detained for more than five years before the final verdict is reached.) The three who lived in Malatya were then fitted with electronic tracking devices, while the other two living in outlying towns were required to report weekly to their local police station.

“So now, even though Malatya’s first instance court has found them guilty, this ruling must be reviewed and approved by the Court of Appeals before the sentence can be enforced,” said Baker.

“According to the 47-page verdict issued by Presiding Judge Vedat Koc, two military officers were also handed jail sentences for crimes committed in relation to the case. Along with Islamic university researcher Ruhi Abad, the two had been released in January 2015 after nearly four years in jail over their suspected involvements in the case.

“Both officers were found guilty of violating the confidentiality of secret communications and forging documents. Malatya Gendarmerie Commander Ret. Col. Mehmet Ulcer was ordered jailed for 13 years and nine months; Maj. Haydar Yesil was sentenced for 14 years, 10 months and 22 days.

“Like the five killers, their sentences cannot be carried out until the appeal process has been completed.”

Barbara G. Baker then stated that Ret. Gen. Hursit Tolon, a high-ranking former general also accused of complicity in the murders, was acquitted along with 15 other suspected perpetrators.

Hours after the court decisions were announced, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek released a statement to the press on behalf of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey.

Deploring the judiciary’s stated inability to “uncover the darkness behind the murders,” Ozbek declared that the Protestant community desired a prompt, “just conclusion” that uncovered the motivation of the perpetrators and punished their crime.

Read more: Rev. Ozbek’s statement on behalf of Turkey's Protestant Association at https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/news/4195287/4195331/4652438?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Five+Turks+convicted+of+killing+Christians+in+Malatya+sentenced+for+life+-+but+remain+free&utm_campaign=Five+Turks+convicted+of+killing+Christians+in+Malatya+sentenced+for+life+-+but+remain+free

For more information, please go to https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/.

Photo captions: 1) The three Christian martyrs (Malatya); from left, Turkish Christians Necati Aydin, Uğur Yüksel, and German Christian, Tilmann Geske (World Watch Monitor). 2) A 2008 snapshot of the five convicted killers. (World Watch Monitor). 3) Susanne Geske, widow of martyr Tilmann Geske, after memorial ceremony for Uğur Yüksel. (Morning Star News). 4) Pastor Ihsan Ozbek, speaking at Necati Aydin’s funeral in Izmir, April 2007. (World Watch Monitor). 5) Dan Wooding recording one of his radio shows.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren, who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He is the author of some 45 books, and has been a full-time journalist since 1968. While still based in London, Wooding was a senior reporter for two of Great Britain’s largest-circulation newspapers, and was an interviewer for BBC Radio One and for LBC, the capital city’s main commercial talk station. Dan now has a weekly radio show and two TV shows all based in Southern California.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net). Please tell your friends that they can receive a complimentary subscription to ANS by going to the above website and signing up there.