Turkish court imprisons five men for life over murder of three Christians

Five men who murdered three Christian publishers in Malatya, Turkey in 2007 have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Turkish court last Wednesday.

Salih Gürler, Cuma Özdemir, Emre Gunaydin, Abuzer Yildirim and Hamit Çeker have been found guilty of premeditated murder by the Malatya First High Criminal Court.

The three victims who worked at the Zirve Publishing House had been tortured before their throats were slit. The five accused were found at the scene.

Two of the victims, UÄŸur Yüksel, 32, and Necati Aydin, 36, converted from Islam while Tilmann Geske, 45, was a German national.

The case raised suspicions that a secret cabal within the military were involved in the crime.

Fourteen other suspects were acquitted, but two military officers were charged with "violating communication privacy and forging official documents."

A Turkish army colonel was sentenced to 13 years and nine months while an army major was sentenced to 14 years and 10 months. A retired general named HurÅŸit Tolon was among the acquitted.

Pastor Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey released a statement regarding the case wherein he pointed out that the court acknowledged that there is a criminal organization behind the murders.

Part of Ozbek's statement reads, "Today the judge explained the verdict saying that the murders could not have taken place without connections to a [criminal] organization, but it was important for the court to admit that they had not exposed this connection. 'Yes, there is an organization, but we did not find the link,' said the court."

According to Middle East Concern, the convicted assailants will not be detained as the case moves to the Court of Appeals.

Gokhan Talas, a friend of the Christians, expressed his disappointment that the convicted men will be allowed to go free.

"They need to be in jail right now," Talas said, adding, "This process is unjust. There's no justice for Christians in this country. This is the proof of that. They are just hiding behind the laws. These people are killers."