Released Suspects in Malatya, Turkey Slayings Ordered to Wear Monitoring Devices

ICC Note: Due to a recent change in the judicial system, the suspects in the brutal murder of three Christians in central Turkey are currently out of prison. The law now limits the amount of time that a suspect can be held without being convicted. The murders took place nearly seven years ago and the court case has been repeatedly delayed as it has been entangled with other corruption and conspiracy theories. The five are still being monitored and a decision is expected to be rendered on their case in the coming months.
03/17/2014 Turkey (Morning Star News) – Christians in Turkey who were shocked to learn that the confessed killers of three Christians would be released on bail under a new law are more at ease as the suspects are effectively under house arrest, a Christian leader said.
A reform law signed into effect on March 6 by President Abdullah Gul reduced the allowable period of pretrial detention from 10 years to five. The next day, five suspects in the 2007 Zirve Publishing House massacre in Malatya – Emre Günaydın, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yildirim – were released from jail after years of delay tactics by their defense team and possibly others.
Under public pressure, authorities effectively put the men under house arrest by requiring them to wear electronic monitoring devices.
On April 18, 2007, the five suspects entered the third-story office of the Zirve Publishing House and tied up Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske. The suspects tortured and interrogated the three men about their Christian activities, and then as police arrived slit the Christians’ throats and fled, according to court testimony.
Aydin and Yuksel were both Turkish converts from Islam. Yuksel was engaged to be married, and Necati was married and had two children. Tilmann, a German national, was married with three children. His wife Susanne, who decided to remain in Malatya after the slayings, initially expressed concern that about the release of the alleged killers.
“At first Susanne was troubled by the release of these men who murdered her husband,” said Umut Sahin, general secretary for the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey. “But now she is more at peace with what has happened. At least one of the young men continues to verbally threaten the lawyers and families of the victims. If he had been free to go wherever he wanted, she would naturally be worried.”
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