TURKEY:Five men went on trial yesterday in the eastern city of Malatya for the brutal murder of three Christian missionaries, in a case that is seen as a test of Turkey's willingness to stamp out growing signs of religious intolerance here, writes Nicholas Birchin Istanbul.
The defendants face life sentences for tying up, torturing and slitting the throats of two Turks and a German on April 18th at the Malatya-based Christian publishing house they ran.
Security was tight around the court house, as members of the victims' families read out opening statements to the judge.
"It's not these five young men I am asking to be punished, but the mentality behind them," said Semse Aydin, wife of one of the victims, adding that her children remain "unconsolable". Susanna Geske, wife of the German victim, talked of the overwhelming support she had received from her neighbours, saying that she considered Malatya her home and had no intention of leaving.
By lunchtime, the judge had ruled the case adjourned until January 14th, citing the lack of lawyers for the defence. Already, though, lawyers for the families say there is evidence the case is being poorly prosecuted.
Chief suspect Emre Gunaydin, a known member of an ultra-nationalist group, claimed he was put up to the murder by a man he met while working for a local newspaper, Turkish newspaper reports said. The prosecutor has not investigated his claims.
Lawyers are also angry that 15 out of 31 dossiers presented to the judge contain documents taken from the victims' computers, including the addresses and phone numbers of their contacts.
"This information is now in the public domain," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, one of six of the families' lawyers present in court. "Not only has the prosecutor failed to make an adequate investigation, he has also put many other peoples' lives in danger."
"Listening to proceedings, you'd think [ the victims] were some sort of criminal gang, that they deserved what they got," said Ahmet Guvener, pastor of a Protestant church in the neighbouring city of Diyarbakir, who was present at the trial.
In some ways, life for Christian converts in mostly Muslim Turkey has got easier in recent years. Pushing hard for European accession, Ankara recently legalised missionary activity and eased legal restrictions on the opening of new churches.
But the rise in anti-western feeling since 2004 has been mirrored by an increase in violent attacks against Christian targets. Several churches were fire-bombed last year, and one Protestant church leader severely beaten. Last February a Catholic priest in the Black Sea city of Trabzon was gunned down by a 16-year-old boy.
Despite official figures showing barely 350 cases of Muslims converting to Christianity in the last 15 years, nationalists - secularist and Islamist - continue to insist missionaries represent an existential threat to the country.
"It's a perception coming out of the past," says Jeremy Salt, a professor at Ankara's Bilkent University who has written widely on 19th-century missionaries in Turkey. "Back then, missionaries were seen as encouraging Christians to rebel. Some think the same thing is happening now."