Andrea Santoro

Who was Andrea Santoro?

Father Andrea Santoro was a Roman Catholic priest in Turkey, murdered in the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon where he served as a member of the Catholic Church's Fidei donum missionary program.

On 5 February 2006 he was shot dead from behind while kneeling in prayer in the church. A witness heard the perpetrator shouting "Allahu Akbar". Oğuzhan Akdin, a 16-year-old high school student, was arrested two days after the shooting, carrying a 9mm pistol. An investigation by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations on stolen weaponry revealed that this gun had been part of a batch of guns that the US had given to the Iraqi army but which had gone missing.

The student told police he had been influenced by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. The murder was preceded by massive anti-Christian propaganda in the Turkish popular press. In the three months before his murder, Father Santoro's telephone had been tapped by the Turkish police in Trabzon.

On 10 October 2006, the accused Oğuzhan Akdin was sentenced to 18 years, 10 months, and 20 days in prison for "premeditated murder" by a Juvenile court in Trabzon. According to the apostolic vicar to Anatolia, Msgr.