The defendant, who converted from Islam to Christianity four years ago, denied the accusations filed against him. His accusers, three men in their 20s, failed to attend the Diyarbakir court hearing to testify against Timur. My religion is the true religion, not yours. Timur told Compass last month that it was his policy while distributing New Testaments to never discuss his Christian faith with passersby. Timur had not even been informed until mid December that a case was pending against him for violating Article 175 of the Turkish penal code, which prohibits the slander of God, the prophets, the holy books or an individual believer.
Conviction calls for a prison sentence from six months to one year.
Although State Prosecutor Muammer Ozcan issued an official indictment on the case dated October 30, Timur's copy of the indictment was not postmarked until December 12. He received it at his home address on December 15. Timur told Compass he had no idea who two of his accusers were, except for their names, although the third had been brought forward by local police when they detained him last May. The three were identified in the indictment as Izzet Ikiz, Cevdat Soykan and Oguzhan Onal. Along with two other Turkish converts, Timur had been detained on May 1 for 24 hours by local police, who said the converts were being arrested on the basis of a citizen's complaint.