Trial of Turkish Christians Continues

The trial went very well today and without incident. The police were ready and made plans to get Hakan and Turan in and out of the courthouse without problems. Several reporters and a few dozen protesters from the nationalist party were waiting outside the courthouse while the trial went on for an hour (like last time, no press or visitors were allowed in the courtroom). After the trial, the police escorted Hakan, Turan, and their lawyer out the back door of the courthouse and safely to their car before anyone knew about it.

A few minutes later, the main lawyer for the prosecution and his followers came out the front door and left without giving a press conference. They appeared to be angry and it was probably because things had not gone so well for them in the courtroom. We learned that the prosecution’s main witness had been caught lying and even the prosecutor was caught in a lie. When asked where the other two witnesses were, he told the judge that they could not get permission to leave their high school to be there. The judge responded that the schools are on winter break.

Unfortunately the case was not thrown out, so Hakan and Turan will be back in court on April 18^th. However, despite this bit of bad new, today’s trial did go well on all other counts and we can be thankful that there was no violence or other incidents.