None Takes Responsibility For Murders Of Three Protestants In Malatya Massacre Trial

The sixth hearing of the murder trial of German citizen Tilman Ekkehart Geske,Necati Aydin and Ugur Yüksel, who were brutally murdered at the Zirve Publications building in Malatya, eastern Turkey, on 18 April 2007 started at the 3^rd High Criminal Court of Malatya.

Making a deposition at the 3^rd High Court of Malatya for the first time, Günaydın said “I did not tie anyone and stab him. I only remember that Cuma and Hamit lay down and tied three people. I even remember that Cuma and Uğur used hogtie to tie them. Later I saw Salih, Cuma and Hamit stabbing them. Meanwhile, I went to the sink to wash my face.” 

The next hearing will be on June 9 

Thus none of the accused confessed to murdering the three Protestants for doing missionary work. The trial will continue on June 9.

In yesterday’s hearing (May 12), the court completed the interrogation of Günaydın. He said that in the beginning he did not know anything about missionaries, but when he came across the subject on a nationalist channel, he started researching the subject on the internet and one day he met a person named Ozan there and asked him if there was a church in Malatya.

Continuing his testimony, Günaydın said that Ozan took his number and introduced him to one of the victims Necati Aydın, who, according to Günaydın, sent him the message “Hi Emre, this is Necati; our place is Zirve Publications”. Günaydın also added that every time they met, Necati Aydın used to disparage Islam, praised Christianity and denigrated the prophet Muhammad. 

Following Yıldırım and Özdemir, Gürler also blamed Günaydın 

Stating that they did not prepare before the murders and that it was not a work of an organization, Günaydın said “we reached this decision after we exchanged information. The knives we brought were to protect ourselves. If we wanted to kill them we would have brought real weapons. We just wanted to get some information to have it published in the newspapers.” He said he was sorry to be involved.

When asked if he knew the Malatya Provincial General Assembly member Ruhi Polat, Günaydın said that he saw this person who helped him enroll in a preparatory school for university exams only once.

The head of the court asked him if he would like to take advantage of the Law of Effective Penitence, reading it to his face and explaining that his sentence would be reduced if he would tell them who the people behind these murders were and give them information about the organization. Günaydın answered by saying that there was nobody behind the murders.

After the recess and right before the cross examination, Günaydın said that he would not answer any questions other than the ones asked by the court.  

Günaydın’s lawyer told victim’s mother to shut up. 

Reminding the court they questioned all of the suspects and that they were in solitary confinement in the prison, Niyazi Tokmak, Günaydın’s lawyer, asked the court to remove this condition. When the mother of one of the victims, Yüksel’s to be exact, objected the request by asking if it was humane to kill people, the lawyer Tokmak’s answer was “Shut up, do not argue with me.”

In yesterday’s hearing, like Yıldırım and Özdemir before him, Salih Gürler held Günaydın responsible for the murders as well. (EÖ/GG/TB)