It's been nine years since three Christians were murdered in southeast Turkey, and only last month were the five men responsible for the crime convicted.
On the 28th of September, the Criminal Court in the city of Malatya convicted the five killers, and sentenced each of them to three consecutive life sentences in prison.
In what has now come to be known as the notorious 'Malatya Massacre,' the five men had tortured the three Christians, Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and German Protestant Tilmann Geske with knives, and had slit their throats. The crime was committed at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya on 18 April, 2007, and the perpetrators had been arrested at the scene of crime itself.
Trial proceedings began in November 2007, and the defendants' lawyers insisted that the attack was intended to stop the harmful activities of missionaries, who were supposedly out to destroy the honour of Islam. Finally, the long-pending verdict was given at the conclusion of the 115th hearing of the trial in Turkey .
As World Watch Monitor reports, the five men, Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Abuzer Yildirim, Cuma Ozdemir and Hamit Ceker, were found guilty of premediated murder, and were sentenced to be jailed for life with no possibility of parole.
However, what most media outlets refrained from reporting was that the court, in a twist of its own verdict, has ruled that the convicted men would continue to remain free, subject to routine surveillance. The case is being appealed before a couple of higher courts now. Until the ruling is reviewed and approved by the Court of Appeals, it cannot be enforced.