protest against published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, Turkish media reported.
Andrea Santoro, 60, was reportedly shot in the back twice as he knelt in his church for prayer Sunday, February 5, in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. Witnesses said his killer yelled Allahu Akbar, or "Allah is Great" before firing.
The witnesses accounts quoted in media contradicted initial reports that he died from a single shot in the chest. Santoro’s body was due to be flown back to Italy on Tuesday, February 7 for his funeral later this week in Rome, said Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI).
Turkey’s Anatolian news agency said the student had been carrying a 9 mm pistol when he was captured. The student, identified only as O.A. told police he was influenced by anger over published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European media, Turkey’s NTV commercial television reported.
In the search for the killer, police have been looking at two possible motives; local crime groups irritated at Santoro’s efforts to help women caught up in prostitution or some link with the wave of protests in Muslim countries regarding the Danish cartoons, AKI reported.
DOZEN DEAD
Worldwide at least a dozen people died since violent protests against cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad began last week. On Tuesday, February 7, Afghan police killed four protesters in some of the worst clashes to erupt over the cartoons, which have provoked a deepening crisis between Europe and the Muslim world, news reports said.
In a new twist, Iran’s best-selling newspaper on Tuesday, February 7, launched a competition to find the best Holocaust cartoon, Reuters news agency reported.
While outrage over the cartoons was believed to be the main motive, Turkish media quoted police also saying that the teenager may have been influenced by recent media coverage of the case of Ali Agca, the man who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. Agca was briefly released from prison, amid much criticism, and later re-jailed, because of what prosecutors described as "an error" in the calculation of his terms.
A woman who lives near the church reportedly said that Santoro "had argued with teenagers in the church courtyard" the day before he was killed, but church officials have apparently denied this.
GOVERNMENT CONDEMNS
The Turkish government has strongly condemned the killing of Santoro. In published remarks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi urged Turkey on Tuesday, February 7, to "neutralize fanatics" after the killing of Santoro, but said the murder should not be allowed to affect Ankara’s bid to join the European Union.
Turkish newspapers said on Tuesday, February 7, that police in Trabzon had failed to provide Santoro with special protection even though he had received threats in the past. The head of the Catholic bishops there, monsignor George Marovich has warned of more violence against Christians following the murder of the priest.
"The security forces are well organized but there is the risk that the situation will deteriorate," AKI quoted him as telling Milan daily Il Giornale this week. In recent months, several church leaders have been attacked by militants and there is concern among the evangelical community within Turkey over the changing religious climate, BosNewsLife learned.
Less than 0.2 percent of Turkey’s nearly 70-million, predominantly Muslim, people are Christians, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Turkey).
