MİT allowed Zirve murders to happen, claims building owner

According to a report that appeared in the Taraf daily on Monday, Republican People's Party (CHP) Malatya deputy Veli Ağbaba, who is also the owner of the building where the Zirve Publishing House's office is located, said: “MİT was watching the publishing house. They allowed the murders to happen by not protecting the publishers. The MİT agents who were monitoring the publishing house were there on the day of the murder.”

The prosecutor investigating the murder of the three Christian missionaries, including a German citizen, is currently drafting an additional indictment concerning the process that led to the murderers and the organized structure behind them.

Ağbaba provided the first link to possible organized crime behind the murder, saying two MİT agents had visited his office and to ask about the publishers. “One day, two people came. First they pretended to be customers. They asked questions about the publishing house. They asked whether they distributed Bibles. They weren't trying to hide their identity. When I asked if they were from MİT, they answered affirmatively. We talked for about half an hour. They wanted to know what was going on at the publishing house, who it was owned by and what exactly they were doing. I told them they wouldn't be able to get anything out of me. I knew Tilman Ekkehart [one of the victims]. He was a nice, calm man. They never did anything to disturb anyone, but rumors started circulating about them, things like they are Christianizing the local villagers. Someone was exaggerating what they were doing.”

Ağbaba said he arrived at the building half an hour after the discovery of the bodies. “The police had cordoned off the building. Nobody could go inside, but the two MİT agents who had spoken to me were there,” he told Taraf.