ACCUSATIONS FLY BETWEEN SUSPECTS IN DINK MURDER

ASBAREZ
2/9/2007

ISTANBUL–A prime suspect in last month’s murder of journalist Hrant
Dink Wednesday put the blame on another arrested suspect, who has
turned out to be a police informant, for the murder, New Anatolia
news agency reported.

Yasin Hayal, the alleged second man in the murder who ordered gunman
Ogun Samast to kill Dink, claimed during interrogation at prison that
Erhan Tuncel engineered both Dink’s murder and a McDonald’s restaurant
bombing three years ago, private news channel CNN Turk reported.

Tuncel was arrested on charges of soliciting the murder but it
latter came to light that he was once a police informant and passed
a tip-off to the police about the murder almost one year before
the killing. Hayal was convicted on charges of bombing a McDonald’s
restaurant in the northern province of Trabzon. He had said that he
committed the crime under influence of personal hatred towards the U.S.

Dink was gunned down last month by Samast, a teenager who was caught
by police a day after the murder. Hayal’s father said earlier in the
week that his son called him and said that if he talks Tuncel would
spend a lifetime in prison.

Hayal was charged with providing money and the murder weapon to Samast,
who is also a Trabzon resident.

The testimony of a relative of Hayal’s also stirred the country as
he claimed that Hayal had spent quite a long time in acquiring a
weapon and that certain Gendarmerie officers were informed about
Hayal’s quest.

Hayal was given a six-month prison sentence for the bombing but
the decision was appealed based on insufficient investigation and
evidence. The Court of Appeals started to hear the appeal case
on Tuesday after the file had waited almost seven months in the
archives. It was alleged last week that Tuncel told police last
February that Hayal planed to kill Dink, but that police didn’t give
any credit to the tip-off.

In related news, the Interior Ministry late on Tuesday gave permission
to launch a probe into Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah after
intense political and public pressure.

Earlier this week Istanbul police head of intelligence Ahmet Ilhan
Guler, who said, "I admit all my guilt for not sharing the intelligence
I received regarding the assassination plot," was removed from office,
following the suspension of five police and five Gendarmerie officers
in Samsun.

Trabizon Governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir and Police Chief Resat Altay
were also suspended soon after the murder.