Agence France Presse — English
May 19, 2007 Saturday 2:17 PM GMT

19-year-old charged with murder at Christian publisher in Turkey

A Turkish court on Saturday charged a 19-year-old man with murder and
forming a terrorist group in connection with the killing of three
people at a Christian publishing house in eastern Malatya, a news
agency reported.

Emre Gunaydin was also charged with illegally detaining the three
victims — a German and two Turks — at the publishing house last
month, where they were tortured for three hours before having their
throats cut, Anatolia agency said.

Gunaydin, the alleged leader of the group accused of being
responsible for the attack, had been hospitalised for a head injury
after having jumped from a third-floor window in the building in an
attempt to flee police.

He was unable to appear in court before Saturday. The court ordered
that he be held in custody.

Four other suspects in the case were also caught at the publishing
house, which had received threats for distributing Bibles and
publishing other Christian literature. The four, 19 and 20 years old,
have been jailed on the same charges.

Seven suspected accomplices, including Gunaydin’s girlfriend, have
been released pending trial.

According to media reports, they were all members of an Islamist
nationalist group.

The gruesome killings appeared to be the latest in a recent series of
attacks on minorities in Turkey, including the murders of a Roman
Catholic priest last year and of a prominent ethnic Armenian
journalist in January.