A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced two young men and a woman to life behind bars for a satanic ritual murder, which the trio believed would prevent devastating earthquakes in the country, Anatolia news agency reported.
The three were originally handed 25-year jail sentences in 2001, but the supreme court overturned the sentence, saying the crime did not just constitute first-degree murder, but a "murder conducted with atrocious intentions" which required heavier penalties.
The defendants, now aged between 22 and 27, have admitted responsibility for suffocating to death a 21-year-old woman at an Istanbul cemetery in September 1999 as part of the ritual and have expressed remorse.
The three said they believed that aftershocks from a major earthquake that killed some 20,000 people in northeast Turkey in August 1999 were a message from Satan demanding a human sacrifice. (Albawaba.com)
