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Europe
Top Turkish court upholds sentence of priest killer
2007-10-06
President Abdullah Gül said on Wednesday Christians could practice their faith freely and safely in Turkey. Asked by the parliamentarians about the attacks targeting Christians, Gül said: “There are no attacks targeting Christians in Turkey but political crimes have occurred and one of them was against a Christian priest. The murderer was captured and is being tried by independent courts.”
The Supreme Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a jail sentence of nearly 19 years for the teenage murderer of an Italian Catholic priest, reported the Anatolia news agency. One year ago a Trabzon court found the boy guilty of premeditated murder, illegal possession of a firearm and of endangering public security. His family appealed against the jail sentence. But the Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence of 18 years and 10 months for the boy, who has not been named since he is a minor.

Witnesses say the boy, then aged 16, shouted “God is great” (Allahu Akbar) before shooting the priest dead. The Turkish government strongly condemned the shooting, which coincided with increased religious tensions worldwide after the publication of cartoons lampooning Islam's Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

Addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, President Abdullah Gül said on Wednesday Christians could practice their faith freely and safely in Turkey. Asked by the parliamentarians about the attacks targeting Christians, Gül said: “There are no attacks targeting Christians in Turkey but political crimes have occurred and one of them was against a Christian priest. The murderer was captured and is being tried by independent courts.” He was referring to the Santoro case.
Posted by:Seafarious

#1  "There are no attacks targeting Christians in Turkey but political crimes have occurred."

So the attack in which two Turkish Christians and a German Christian worker were butchered last June just happened to be political? The killers weren't were not targeting Christians?

Right. Sure.
Posted by: mom   2007-10-06 00:57  

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