TURKEY: Alleged Masterminds Of Malatya Murders Named In Court
10 July 08
Lawyers Ozkan Yucel and Erdal Dogan (right) outside courtroom
Defense turns trial of slaughter of three Christians into missionary witch-hunt.
Despite new court testimony naming a web of ranking local officials behind the slaughter of three Christians in Malatya last year, defense lawyers for the alleged murderers attempted to turn last week’s hearing into an investigation into Christian missionary activities.
The defense also pursued a line of questioning linked to a farfetched conspiracy theory, based on the murderers’ claims that the Malatya office of Zirve Publishing Co. was secretly linked to the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.
But the firsthand testimony of a prosecution witness claiming to know personally the instigators of the deadly plot dominated Friday’s (July 4) hearing, with plaintiff lawyers concluding this put them “one step further” in unraveling the case.
Playing to rising anti-Christian sentiments in 99 percent Muslim Turkey, the murderers’ attorneys peppered four of the six witnesses testifying at hearing with probing questions about their personal religious beliefs and involvement in Christian activities.
“Don’t bother with the murders, tell us about missionary work!” shouted a sarcastic headline on the front page of Taraf newspaper the morning after the trial.
It was the eighth hearing in the case, trying five murder suspects caught at the scene and two accomplices for the April 18, 2007 murders of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske in a Christian publishing office in southeastern Turkey.
Although the presiding judge accepted most plaintiff objections to irrelevant defense questions, the day-long hearing was punctuated by recurring, heated shouting matches across the courtroom between the two ranks of attorneys.
Irrelevant Probing
“Do you have any authority delegated to you to spread Christianity yourself?” one defense lawyer asked Ozan Cobanoglu, the first witness to testify. A student in western Turkey, Cobanoglu had innocently connected Turkish Protestant pastor Aydin by e-mail with Emre Gunaydin, the alleged ringleader of the killers.
Outraged plaintiff lawyers objected immediately to the defense’s inquiry.
“This question must be rejected, because it violates the constitutional restriction against forcing anyone to openly declare their beliefs,” lawyer Ali Koc stated.
But moments later, the defense asked Cobanoglu, “Why was Necati Aydin chosen to lead the Malatya church? Who selected him? What was the significance of all the e-mail messages he received, congratulating him on his new position in Zirve?”
These questions had no relevance to the case, attorney Erdal Dogan declared.
“Please, show a little respect,” he said to defense lawyers. “This case is about three savage murders, not an inquiry into the Christian faith and its practices! Don’t be ridiculous!”
But defense attorneys continued to raise what one plaintiff lawyer labeled “stupid” questions regarding Christian activities related to the Zirve Publishing office.
Questioning Emin Mig, an accountant from Adana who had been working in the Zirve office the morning shortly before the attack, defense counsel demanded details about the activities and income of a company registered by Geske, the German victim.
‘Terrorist’ Conspiracies
Later Talas responded sharply to another defense question as to whether the victims’ activities spreading Christian faith were linked with PKK terrorists trying to set up a separatist Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
“No Christian has any ties with the PKK,” Talas said. “To the last drop, the blood of Christians is tied to this nation.”
Gunaydin and his collaborators claimed in their police interrogations and court statements that they were told that the Christians at Zirve were allied secretly with the PKK.
At one point defense lawyer Mehmet Katar held up a one-page “job description” taken from Zirve computer files, insinuating that the discipleship expectations its staff members were instructed to follow with new Christians in fact represented training guidelines for PKK activities.
“There is not a single concrete proof of this!” scoffed a plaintiff lawyer. “Where do they want to go with these questions?” he asked the court. “Where will this go from here? Will this go to Kandil Mountain [the hideout of the PKK near the Iraq-Iran border]?”
Source: Compass
- Pray against confusion in this case.
- Pray that God will give the words and actions to the lawyers supporting the Christians families.