SENIOR TURKISH POLICE OFFICER SUSPENDED IN DINK PROBE
ArmRadio.am
07.02.2007 16:36
A senior Turkish policeman has been suspended amid allegations police
had advance warning of the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink.
Ten officers and paramilitary policemen have already been suspended
in the Black Sea city of Samsun.
They were suspended after video images were leaked to the press
showing officers posing with a teenager who confessed to the murder.
The inquiry into the official handling of the case has raised serious
questions over the possible complicity of Turkey’s security forces
with extreme nationalist groups.
Investigators are looking into allegations that Istanbul police were
informed that Hrant Dink’s life was in danger eleven months before
he was killed.
Head of police intelligence here admits receiving a letter from
police in the city of Trabzon last February with a tip-off from an
informer. The Istanbul police intelligence chief made only superficial
inquiries and failed to pass the information on to his superiors.
For days a fierce debate has raged about possible links between those
who killed Hrant Dink and ultra-nationalist networks operating with
the state and security forces.