“Sayamadığımız kadar çok bıçak darbesi vardı. Ä°ÅŸkence amaçlı olduÄŸu çok açıktı. Kalçası, testisleri, anüsü, beli ve sırtı onlarca bıçak darbesi ile doÄŸranmış. Parmakları uzunlamasına ve kemiÄŸe kadar defalarca kesilmiÅŸti. BoÄŸazında da boydan boya çok uzun ve açık bir yara var. Yemek borusu ve soluk borusu bu darbelerle kesilmiÅŸti. Saat 14.25’te ameliyata alındı. Hastanedeki 4 birimin ekipleri ameliyata girdi. 51 ünite kan verildi. Hastanenin kan stokları tükendiÄŸi için kan Kızılay’dan tamamlandı. Ancak UÄŸur saat 17.30’da hayatını kaybetti.”

Dr. Murat Uğraş, a spokesman for the Turgut Özal Medical center

“He had innumerable scores of knife stab wounds. It is obvious that these wounds had been inflicted to torture him. His fingers were repeatedly sliced to the bone lengthwise. His buttocks, his tecticles, his rectum, his lower and middle back had dozens of cuts. There was a very long and open cut on his neck from ear to ear. His esophagus and trechea were cut with the knife-stab wounds. He was taken into surgery at 14:25. Teams from 4 units of the hospital participated in the surgery. 51 units of blood were given. After the hospitals blood stock were depleted, the blood was supplied from Kizilay (Red Crescent). Nevertheless, Ugur lost his life at 17:30.”

We based the description in the initial prayer letter on those news reports and others like them which are only available in Turkish, but as you suggested substantiating them is another issue.

Unfortunately, no believer saw the whole body of either Necati or Ugur. Tilmann’s friends saw his whole body and from what they saw it appeared that there were only ‘about 20′ visible wounds. Some suggest that there was a conspiracy to exaggerate the extent of the wounds in order to frighten the Christians in Turkey. Others hold that a doctor of such repute as Dr. Murat Ugras would not go ‘on the line’ by lying about such a case of national and international significance. Out of courtesy to the debate we requested that pending release of the autopsy reports that those graphic details be removed.

That said, I think that generally people do not really have a picture of what ‘torture’ really means. The extent of the torture on the initial letter was in several areas probably exaggerated by the media we based our report on. However, we believe that in His Sovereignty, God used even that to wake His Worldwide Church from slumber.

I am attaching on the next post the text of the interview with Dr. Murat Ugras.

Sincerely,
Darlene N. Bocek
The Protestant Church of Smyrna

Some of the “confirmation” for the brutal details of the attack came from Turkish media reports, including the Turkish Daily News, which quoted a doctor who had worked on the case.

We have recieved updated reports from sources in Turkey that questioned some of the early reports, and that’s why we made the change to our web site posting about the case.

Please continue to pray for Christians in Turkey, and that this event can be the spark that lights a great revival fire in that country.

Blessings,

Todd Nettleton
The Voice of the Martyrs