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Priest hit 'ordered over web'
Ankara - The teenage suspect being held for allegedly shooting an Italian Roman Catholic priest in Turkey received orders to kill him through an internet webcam, the suspect's father said, according to the leading Hurriyet newspaper on Thursday. The suspect's father, Hikmet, was quoted by the paper as saying that his 16-year-old son was excited and nervous on Sunday night, hours after he allegedly killed Santoro. "Look at television, the priest was shot," Hikmet quoted his son as saying in an interview with Hurriyet. The father became suspicious and pressed his son about why the priest might have been killed. Finally, the boy said: "I shot him. If I did not shoot him, they would shoot you," the father quoted his son as saying. The father said he then questioned him further. "He did not reveal the details, he just said he was told by someone through a webcam," Hikmet said. The paper did not provide the father's surname to protect the suspect, who is a minor. Neither the father nor the boy's lawyer was immediately available for comment. The semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported that the boy was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday where he will likely be arraigned. Santoro, 60, was killed on Sunday while praying in his church along the Black Sea coast. Witnesses say the killer screamed "Allah Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," before firing two bullets into Santoro's back as he kneeled to pray. The priest's body was returned to Italy on Tuesday. The suspect was captured on Tuesday and police said they seized a 9mm handgun during the raid and a ballistics test confirmed it was used in the shooting. Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-02-12 |
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