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Agence France Presse
June 9, 2012 Saturday 1:07 PM GMT
Turkish alleged coup plotters linked to Christian murders
ISTANBUL, June 9 2012
A Turkish prosecutor has linked a shadowy group the government
suspects of being coup plotters to the 2007 murders of three Christian
missionaries, media reports said Saturday.
The three members of a Bible publishing firm, including a German
national, were tortured and killed in April 2007 in the eastern town
of Malatya. Nine people are already on trial for the murder, of whom
six are in jail.
The prosecutor in Malatya has filed a bill of indictment against 19
other people, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Heading the list is former general Hursit Tolon, a key figure in
investigations into the so-called Ergenekon network -- a shadowy group
the government has blamed for a variety of violent acts.
Turkish authorities accuse the ultra-nationalist network of being
behind several plots to overthrow the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The 761-page indictment accuses Tolon of "heading a terrorist
organisation" and also names retired colonel Mehmet Ulger, Anatolia
said.
It says other cells linked to the organisation were involved in the
2006 murder of Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in the
northeastern city of Trabzon and the killing of a journalist of
Armenian descent, Hrant Dink, the following year in Istanbul.
In both cases, the killers were given lengthy sentences and judges
ruled out organised crime being behind the murders.
June 9, 2012 Saturday 1:07 PM GMT
Turkish alleged coup plotters linked to Christian murders
ISTANBUL, June 9 2012
A Turkish prosecutor has linked a shadowy group the government
suspects of being coup plotters to the 2007 murders of three Christian
missionaries, media reports said Saturday.
The three members of a Bible publishing firm, including a German
national, were tortured and killed in April 2007 in the eastern town
of Malatya. Nine people are already on trial for the murder, of whom
six are in jail.
The prosecutor in Malatya has filed a bill of indictment against 19
other people, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Heading the list is former general Hursit Tolon, a key figure in
investigations into the so-called Ergenekon network -- a shadowy group
the government has blamed for a variety of violent acts.
Turkish authorities accuse the ultra-nationalist network of being
behind several plots to overthrow the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The 761-page indictment accuses Tolon of "heading a terrorist
organisation" and also names retired colonel Mehmet Ulger, Anatolia
said.
It says other cells linked to the organisation were involved in the
2006 murder of Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in the
northeastern city of Trabzon and the killing of a journalist of
Armenian descent, Hrant Dink, the following year in Istanbul.
In both cases, the killers were given lengthy sentences and judges
ruled out organised crime being behind the murders.