Turkey: Confessed Killers of Christians Freed on Bail
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
ANKARA, TURKEY (Worthy News)– Under a new Turkish law, five confessed Christian killers slated to be released on bail will instead remain under house arrest, according to Morning Star News.
A new law reducing the period of pretrial detention has allowed five Muslims — who were arrested for the Zirve Publishing House massacre in Malatya — to be released from jail after years of delays by their defense teams. But because of public pressure, authorities have now placed them under house arrest by electronic monitoring.
Back on April 18, 2007, five Muslims entered the third-story office of the Zirve Publishing House and forcefully bound Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske. According to court testimony, the Muslims then tortured and interrogated the three about their Christian activities. When the police arrived, they slit their captive’s throats, but were all apprehended as they fled from the scene of the crime.
Under questioning, the Muslims confessed that they killed the Christians out of defense of their country and their religion.
The trial was often delayed as the prosecution pursued various false leads; there were also numerous postponements when many of the prosecution’s witnesses failed to appear to testify.
The next hearing is scheduled for April.