Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 7 2007

Crucial evidence obscured in Malatya murder case

The police department knowingly misdirected an investigation into the
brutal murders of three Bible publishers in the southeastern city of
Malatya in April, evidence published in the Turkish press yesterday
suggested.

The new findings come amongst a number of incidents suggesting what
seem to be attempts to cover up facts and destroy evidence regarding
the murder of three men at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya.
Disturbing connections between the suspects in the Malatya murders
and the military had already emerged during the first hearing in the
suspects’ trial last week. The latest such proof of the police
seeming reluctant to shed light on the murders was an outright lie
told by the head of the Malatya Police Department, reports in
yesterday’s papers said.

Malatya Police Chief Ali Osman Kahya on Monday stated that video
recordings from the hospital room of Emre Günaydýn, one of the
attackers suspected of having masterminded the murders, taken during
the time he spent in a Malatya hospital after falling from the
publishing house’s window while trying to escape from police, were
submitted to the prosecutors.

However, documents acquired by newspapers suggested otherwise. A
number of newspapers published a scanned document, signed by a senior
officer with the Malatya police, addressing the chief public
prosecutor, announcing that the camera records had been "destroyed."
Official documents signed by hospital officials also confirmed that
this was the case.

Suspiciously reminiscent of past murders

Many here point to striking similarities between a shooting at the
Council of State that killed a senior judge last year, the murder of
ethnic-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink earlier this year and the
brutal Malatya murders of April.

In all of the cases the suspects said they had committed the crimes
in the name of religion, the motherland or the nation. One of the
suspects in these incidents had a Turkish flag in his pocket, another
suspect had prayer inscriptions. However, all of the suspects were
entirely the opposite of what those objects stand for.

Emre Günaydýn, who was the leader of the gang that murdered three
Christian men from the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya in April of
this year, cited religious motivations in his testimony on the
killings. However, he has recently admitted to having smoked
marijuana on more than one occasion. His police file also indicates
that a large number of photographs with adult content were found on
his home computer.

Ogün S., the teenager who shot Hrant Dink in January of this year,
testified in court that he had taken two ecstasy pills and smoked
marijuana before the murder.

In the 2006 Council of State shooting, the suspects, who had said
they acted in the name of God, have confessed that they came to know
each other when they met at a bar. Pornographic material was also
found on their computers. Acquaintances have depicted lawyer
Alparslan Arslan, the hit man in the shooting, as a "non-religious
person who drank a lot."