Seven Police Officers Condemned in Zirve Massacre Case

A Malatya court condemns seven police officers to 5 months in prison for failing to record two guns when they intervened the propitiators of Zirve publishing house massacre, two days before the incident. The ruling is deferred.

According to local Malatya Yenigün newspaper, a chief officer and six others were found guilty of "misconduct". Chief officer Şerafettin A. was accused of signing the record papers without checking the serials of the confiscated guns while others were accused of not noting the serials.

Three people, German citizen Tilmann Ekkhart Geske, Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel was murdered in April 18th, 2007 in Zirve publishing house. They were allegedly close to the Protestant community in town.

Two days prior to the murders, main suspects Emre Günaydın, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yıldırım were interrogated by the police upon a complaint that they were practicing with blank guns in a rural area.

During a search in their vehicle, police found a gun with a serial number of 1328 but the suspects declared a certificate for another gun with serial number 1312. Failing to check the numbers, police officers put 1312 down in the record. As a result, two other guns that were on the suspects at that time weren't confiscated. Following the murders, gun 1312, which was recorded as confiscated earlier, was found on the murderers.

Five people are in prison as the murder trail continues. Two others are on trial without arrest. During the 15th hearing of the trial on February 10th, the court demanded to hear 10 more witnesses, among them an academic, Ruhi Abat, who allegedly gave briefings to the Commander of Gendarmerie Mehmet Ülger and his staff about missionary activities.

The trial continues on April 13th.(EÖ/AGÜ)