Reporters without borders (press release), France
March 27 2007

Call for action against suspected masterminds of journalist’s murder

Reporters Without Borders today appealed to the government to act
against those who ordered the 19 January killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink as five people, some of them extreme rightists,
were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder.

`We are alarmed at the possible political implications of the case,
whose outcome is very important for Turkey’s future,’ the worldwide
press freedom organisation said. `Those who carried out the murder
must not be the only ones to be punished. Many things point to them
being supported by various prominent groups and figures. The
authorities must put a stop to these machinations,’ it said.

Five people were arrested yesterday in Trabzon and taken to Istanbul
for questioning, including the head of the Trabzon branch of the
extreme-rightwing Great Unity Party (BBP), Yasar Cihan, and a member
of the branch committee, Halis Egemen. Cihan was picked up after a
photo was found of him with the BBP leader and Erhan Tuncel, one of
the suspected masterminds of the killing and an police informer.

An interior ministry report on the murder investigation by national
security chiefs which was leaked to the media accuses Istanbul police
chief Celalettin Cerrah of failing to protect editor Dink, who was
shot dead outside the offices of his weekly newspaper Agos, even
though Trabzon police has warned their Istanbul colleagues of a plot
to kill Dink. The all-news TV station NTV said Tuncel had warned
Trabzon police 17 times about the plot before they passed the message
on to Istanbul. The record of the interrogation of one of the
suspects, Tuncay Uzundal, was also reportedly forged by Trabzon
police.

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