Turkey frees five charged over 2007 murders of Christian missionaries

ANKARA - Agence France-Presse

After a key suspect in the Hrant Dink case, five men accused of slitting the throats of three Christian missionaries in Malatya were also released as they detention exceeded new legal limits.

A Turkish court has freed five men accused of torturing and murdering three Christian missionaries in 2007, after the suspects' time in detention while on trial exceeded new legal limits.

The men walked free from their high-security prison in the eastern city of Malatya on March 7, Doğan News Agency reported.

German missionary Tilmann Geske and Turkish converts Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel had their throats slit in the Zirve Publishing House in April 2007 after being tied up and interrogated about missionary activities.

The three victims were members of the city's tiny Protestant community. The trial of the five men accused of the attack is still going on seven years later.

Under a new law passed by the Turkish parliament last month, the detention limit for suspects on trial who have not yet been convicted was lowered to five years, paving the way for the five accused to be released on bail.

The murders at the time fuelled fear among Turkey's tiny Christian minorities and raised concern over rising nationalism and hostility towards non-Muslims in Turkey, a mainly Muslim country seeking European Union membership.