Indictment added in murder case
MALATYA - Doğan News Agency
Gen. Hurşit Tolon is currently in prison under ongoing Ergenekon probe. REUTERS photo
A court in the eastern province of Malatya has decided to add a new indictment to the existing one in the ongoing Zirve publishing house case, concerning the murder of three missionaries.The indictment includes evidence against Gen. Hurşit Tolon, former top commander of the Turkish armed forces.
In the new indictment, Tolon and 18 other suspects are charged with forming a secret organization within the Turkish Armed Forces and acting under directions from Ergenekon, an alleged ultranationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos in society.
Murder
The case will be held on Sept. 3, 2012. Three missionaries, German citizen Tillman Geske and two Turks, Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel, were tied up and tortured before having their throats slit at the Zirve Publishing House, a Christian publisher, in the eastern province of Malatya on April 18, 2007.
Five young men, aged 19 and 20 at the time of the killings, have confessed to the murder and were arrested for the crime. However, authorities have continued to investigate the matter, which is believed by many to have been an act of the “deep state” rather than a group of independent fanatics.
The testimony of Tolon, who has been under arrest in the ongoing Ergenekon coup plot, may shed light on the case, Erdal Doğan, the lawyer in the Zirve case had said earlier.
