Agence France Presse — English
October 18, 2007 Thursday 1:53 PM GMT

Five Turks face life for Christian murders

A Turkish prosecutor sought life sentences Thursday for five youths
accused of the gruesome murders in April of three Christians, one of
them a German, a report said Thursday.

The suspects, aged 19 and 20, are expected to go on trial within a
month, the Anatolia news agency said.

A German missionary and two Turkish converts to Christianity, members
of the tiny Protestant community in the eastern city of Malatya, had
their throats slit in the offices of a Christian publishing house
there on April 18.

They were tied to chairs and tortured as the assailants interrogated
them on their missionary activities before killing them.

Four of the suspects were captured at the scene.

Their alleged leader, 19-year-old Emre Gunaydin, jumped from the
third-floor office’s window as police arrived and was hospitalised
with serious head injuries. He has since recovered.

The murders followed those of a Roman Catholic priest last year and
an ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January, fuelling concern
that nationalism and hostility against non-Muslims is on the rise in
Turkey.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the time that she was
troubled by an "unacceptable intolerance" in Turkey, a candidate for
European Union membership.

Gunaydin had reportedly visited the publishing house, Zirve, several
times and attended an Easter dinner hosted by the Protestant
community in Malatya.

The publishing house distributed bibles and published Christian
literature.

Details of the charges brought against the suspects were not
immediately known.

They had been accused of setting up a terrorist organisation and
murder when they were jailed in April pending trial.