(Hurriyet Daily News) Turkish court has ruled for three aggravated life sentences for each of the five suspects in the Zirve Publishing House murder case, some nine years after the crimes were committed. The court in the eastern province of Malatya ruled for three aggravated life sentences each for Emre Günaydın, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yıldırım.
The 115th hearing of the case was held in the Malatya First Heavy Penal Court early on Sept. 28 with three of the suspects and their lawyers appearing at the courthouse. Günaydın, Yıldırım and Gürler, who had earlier been released with electronic tracking bracelets as a part of a judicial control decision, were brought to the courthouse under police surveillance, as Çeker and Özdemir participated in the hearing via video conferences from courthouses in the Elbistan district of southern Kahramanmaraş province and the Darende district of Malatya, respectively.
See the real story of the Malatya murders in a special video documentary.
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Another suspect, Varol Bülent Aral, participated in the hearing from a prison in the southern province of Adana through video conference while other suspects being tried without arrest, including former Malatya Gendarmerie Commander Ret. Col. Mehmet Ülger, also joined the hearing.
