The lawyers working on the case of the three Christians murdered for their faith in Turkey are presenting witnesses in an attempt to expand the number of defendants from the five young suspects to repressive forces at the top of state power.
Evidence from previous hearings suggests that the April 2007 killings in southern Turkey were instigated by the Ergenekon organization, a loose association of ultra-nationalist generals, businessmen, mafia and journalists who were planning a coup d'état in the country.
At a court hearing on 16.01.09, the defendant's lawyer stated that they wanted to call the witness Ergun Poyraz, a journalist arrested in 2007 who was linked to Ergenekon. The prosecutors said they believed that although Poyraz was not directly involved in the planning of the killings, he had important knowledge about the participants in Ergenekon. They hoped that his testimony could unravel some of the very intricate and tangled webs of connections and determine the role of the security forces in the attack. (Compass Direct/Danish Europamision)
