Five Turkish murder suspects on trial for torturing and killing three Christians in Malatya in 2007 were released on March 7, before the conclusion of their trial in southeast Turkey.
Under a new judicial package passed by the Turkish Parliament in late February, the detention limit for suspects on trial who have not yet been convicted was reduced from ten to five years. Once the proposed laws were approved by the Turkish President and published in the Official Gazette in early March the five Malatya suspects became eligible for immediate release.
Susanne Geske, widow of the German victim Tilmann Geske, admitted that the thought of meeting one of the bailed men downtown was something she and her children still living in Malatya would ‘have to get used to’.
