Posted on 03/01/2008 8:06:50 PM PST by Siberian-psycho
TURKEY: LAWYERS DEMAND REMOVAL OF MALATYA JUDGES Court’s impartiality questioned as evidence, courtroom recording withheld. MALATYA, Turkey, February 28 (Compass Direct News) – Lawyers representing the families of three Christians tortured and slaughtered with knives in eastern Turkey last April demanded this week that the three-member bench of judges hearing the case be replaced. Addressing the Malatya Third Criminal Court on Monday (February 25), plaintiff lawyer Özkan Yücel Soylu declared that the “impartiality and independence” of the court was in jeopardy, as the judges were obstructing justice by withholding evidence and refusing to record the high-profile murder case. Soylu objected to the court’s refusal to grant access to the killers’ computer records, photographs from the autopsies and crime scene and security camera films from one suspect’s hospital room. “This is essential information if we are to properly cross-examine the defendants,” Soylu stated. “It is illegal to not allow us to review this evidence.” On April 18, 2007, five young Turkish Muslims entered the Malatya offices of Zirve Publishing and tortured and then slit the throats of Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, both Turkish Christians who had converted from Islam, and German Christian Tilmann Geske. According to identical handwritten notes found in the pockets of all five killers, their motives were both nationalist and religious. “We did this for our country,” the notes read. “They are attacking our religion.”
And of course the UN Human Rights Commission, the government of Germany, the EU (of which Turkey hopes to become a member), and the US State Dept., will all object to the murders and to the biased trial of those who committed the crimes. . .
(sarc/off)
“Non-Muslims in Turkey [are] a prime target, particularly for radical groups,” the report stated.
“Islam: a peaceful loving religion” yeah right!
The prosecuting attorney said he would go to the EU if he had too. He is now with police protection, but the corruption is higher than that.
Thanks for posting. Ping. Ping.
Thanks for being here AND being in the thick of things.
my pleasure. Can’t imagine another life.
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