INTERNATIONAL

 

Assailant in Street Attack in Turkey Ordered Released

 

Court ignores ‘religious hostility’ of Turk who held knife to Christian’s throat.

 

By Barbara G. Baker

 

ISTANBUL - An Istanbul court has ordered the release of a jailed Turk who publicly threatened and held a knife to the throat of a Christian he attacked six months ago.

 

In a ruling on Wednesday (Feb. 10), the Kadikoy Seventh Court of First Instance convicted Yasin Karasu, 24, of making death threats and mounting an armed attack against Ismail Aydin. Shouting to attract passersby as he held a knife to Aydin’s throat on Aug. 3, Karasu had denounced the Christian as a “missionary dog” who had betrayed Turkey by leaving Islam and evangelizing others.

 

The crime is punishable by four years in prison, but Justice Tahsin Dogan ruled that Karasu should be released unconditionally, without serving the remainder of his sentence.

 

After the attack last August, the 48-year-old Aydin had declined to press charges against his assailant, who was taken into police custody at the scene. But state prosecutors charged Karasu under criminal statutes for making armed threats, obstructing another’s freedom, and attempted harm with a weapon.

 

He was then sent to prison for the duration of criminal investigations into the case.

 

After an initial hearing on Jan. 12, Karasu appeared in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district courthouse this week for a second trial hearing. Arriving in handcuffs from Istanbul’s Metris Prison where he has been incarcerated for the past six months, Karasu erupted in several emotional outbursts as he entered the courthouse with an escort of gendarmerie guards.

 

At the outset, the prisoner heatedly refused to accept the lawyer his father hired to represent him in court. After a guard removed his handcuffs before he entered the courtroom, Karasu took out of his pocket several handwritten pages, which he said he would submit in his own defense.

 

Under Turkish law, Karasu’s conviction should have left him with a four-year jail term for his death threats and armed attack on Aydin. But the prosecutor, applying a frequently used law of procedures, cited the defendant’s “respectful behavior, condition and manners in the courtroom in his favor” and declared that Karasu’s good conduct had earned him a one-sixth reduction (eight months) in his sentence.

 

Together with the six months Karasu has already been jailed, that reduced his four-year prison term to a remaining two years and 10 months.

 

Nevertheless, the court ruled for Karasu’s unconditional release. The Court of Appeal must approve this sentence, however, and his actual release then must be formally approved in writing by the Administrative Board of Penalties.

 

“It seems that the judge did not take into account at all that this crime was committed with religious hostility,” one member of the legal committee of Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches told Compass. “That, in my view, should have aggravated the crime and sentence.”

 

Human rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz, after reviewing Wednesday’s court record, agreed.

 

“This is also a crime against the freedom of religion,” Cengiz said. “This should be another factor to be taken into account, and the sentence should be increased accordingly.”

 

Karasu had taken Aydin hostage by grabbing him around the neck, holding a knife blade to his throat and forcing him along the street to a busy intersection in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district. Within minutes both TV crews and police arrived at the scene, watching as Karasu wrapped Aydin’s head in a large Turkish flag and continued to taunt him as a traitor to the nation.

 

“I want to see him set free,” Aydin commented outside the courtroom before this week’s hearing.

 

Aydin, who converted to Christianity 22 years ago, said he had forgiven Karasu.

Aydin said Karasu had made contact with him several times during the year previous to his attack, asking him questions about the Christian faith. He said Karasu, who was unemployed when he attacked him, had experienced emotional problems and depression while completing the last months of his military service.

 

Karasu’s father, who traveled from Erzurum to attend this week’s hearing, told Compass that he could not understand what had caused his son to launch such an attack against Aydin. Confirming that his son had received psychological treatment in the past, he declared his intention to take him back to Erzurum after his release, so that he could live at home and undergo more psychological therapy.

 

INTERNATIONAL

Christian volunteers stoned while working Jewish fields in 'West Bank'

Israel Today

Palestinian Arabs attacked and wounded five Christian volunteers working the fields around the Jewish community of Har Bracha in the so-called "West Bank" on Tuesday, (02-09-2010)reported Israel National News.

 

The five volunteers, all from America, were lightly wounded in the attack. When the security officer for Har Bracha arrived at the scene and witnessed a group of Arabs stoning the Christians, he fired his weapons in the air causing the attackers to flee.

All five volunteers were back to work on Wednesday.

 

The story received no international media coverage, though reports, even unsubstantiated reports, of Jews disrupting Palestinian harvesting regularly receive extensive coverage.

ARCHEOLOGY

Herod’s Quarry

Quarry that supplied stones for Herod's renovations of the Second Temple found at a time when Moslem authorities are trying to destroy any proof of the existence of the Israelite temples.

By Netanel Doron

 

Israeli archaeologists believe they have found the quarry that provided the biblical King Herod with the huge stone blocks used to renovate the Second Temple compound. It was discovered in Ramat Shlomo, a relatively new suburb of Jerusalem about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north of the Old City.  Read more >>

 

 

 

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