Turkish police today outlined measures to fight the spread of Satanism among high school students as the new school year got underway.
Police across the country will tighten control in bars, cafes and Internet cafes around schools and will clamp down on internet sites spreading Satanic ideas, amid growing concern about the issue.
"We will also step up intelligence-gathering regarding Satanist groups," a police official said, adding that the measures were part of a broader action plan against criminal activities involving students, such as drug dealing.
The mounting concern about Satanism in high schools, particularly in Istanbul, proved justified in January when a 16-year-old girl jumped to her death from a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait. Her suicide was thought to be encouraged by alleged Satanists among her friends. Three other students, also thought to have been linked to Satanist groups, had committed suicide earlier.
Conversations between some of the teenagers and their friends on Internet chat rooms and published in the press showed they were interested in Satanism and praised death.
In March 2001, three people, age between 20 and 25, were sentenced to 25 years in prison for suffocating to death a 21-year-old woman at an Istanbul cemetery as part of a Satanic ritual.
The brutal murder sparked public outrage and brought Satanism under the spotlight in the mainly Muslim country.
AFP