Update on Turkish Malatya Murder of Christians Trial March 18. 08

Mysterious Clerical ‘Error’ Delays Murder Trial in Turkey
Court clerks fail to forward lawyers’ request to replace ‘biased’ judges.
By Barbara G. Baker


Mysterious Clerical ‘Error’ Delays Murder Trial in Turkey
Court clerks fail to forward lawyers’ request to replace ‘biased’ judges.
By Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, March 18 (Compass Direct News) – The fourth trial hearing yesterday against the murderers of three Christians in southeast Turkey was postponed for another month after court clerks failed to file a request to replace judges accused of bias.

Plaintiff lawyers’ official demand to replace the presiding bench of judges had been filed on March 1, but when the Malatya Third Criminal Court convened yesterday it was confirmed that the request still had not been forwarded to the higher court in Diyarbakir, which was designated to rule on it.

Plaintiff lawyers had demanded a new set of judges at the previous hearing on February 25, listing repeated instances of bias and partiality that they declared were “obstructing justice” in the high-profile murder case.

As required by Turkish court procedures, the plaintiffs then filed their written complaint within the legal deadline of seven days, to be sent from the state prosecutor’s office of Izmir’s 10th Criminal Court to Diyarbakir’s Criminal Court for official review.

But the Diyarbakir court has yet to receive the complaint.

According to a report published yesterday in Malatya Haber newspaper, the lawyers’ written complaint was faxed from Izmir on March 3 to the Malatya criminal court, rather than to the Diyarbakir court designated to review it. Even then, only the first page of the complaint was faxed, not the complete document.

Dubbed “the missing fax comedy” by today’s Sabah newspaper, the failure of the Izmir court staff to forward the complaint to the higher court in Diyarbakir forced the Malatya tribunal to postpone the hearing for another month, until April 14.

In doing so, the presiding judges in Malatya issued an accusation of “criminal offense” against court clerks of the state prosecutor’s office in Izmir, declaring that their ineptitude in processing the legal complaint “within a reasonable time” had brought a “negative effect” on the case.

Since the trial opened last November, only one of the five murder suspects and two accused “accomplices” have testified in court.

Gun Charge Dropped
In another twist in the case, last week Malatya’s Second Criminal Court acquitted prime murder suspect Emre Gunaydin on charges of carrying and shooting a pistol fitted with blanks in an inhabited location in Malatya on April 17, the day before he and four other suspects attacked Zirve Publishing Co. offices.

Gunaydin, who is accused of being the ringleader of the five suspects in the Malatya massacre, had purchased the Smith & Wesson gun on April 16. He was detained the following day, April 17, for shooting off the pistol in Malatya’s Pinarbasi district. Police records indicate that Gunaydin was interrogated and released, with the pistol confiscated by the police.

But on April 18, this same gun was found at the scene of the crime, allegedly brought there by Gunaydin.

“The question as to how Gunaydin got this gun [back] remains unanswered,” NTV reported on its Internet website on March 13.

Gunaydin and his four cohorts, all under the age of 21, attacked the Zirve office on April 18, 2007. After tying up and torturing Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske with knives, they slit all their throats.

In identical notes found in their pockets, the killers declared their motives were to protect their country and their religion, Islam, from Christian missionaries.

A new draft report last week from the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey specifically called on Turkish authorities to carry out “a full investigation” into the Malatya murders and the assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, as well as all other cases of “politically or religiously motivated violence.”

“Prime Minister Erdogan and his government made the commitment that 2008 is going to be the year of reforms,” Dutch rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten commented when releasing the report on March 13. “The time has now come to make use of its strong parliamentary majority to fulfill this commitment and accelerate the reform process.”