Istanbul, June 17: A Turkish court today sentenced two young men and a woman to life in prison 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, Sehriban Coskunfirat, 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 quake that killed some 20,000 people in northeast Turkey in August 1999 were a message from Satan demanding a human sacrifice.

The brutal murder, the first publicly known act of violence committed by Satan worshippers in Turkey, sparked outrage in the country and captured local headlines for weeks.

Bureau Report