International Herald Tribune
March 27 2007

Turkish court releases politician without charge in slain journalist
case
The Associated PressPublished: March 27, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey: A right-wing politician detained for questioning in
connection with the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist was
released Tuesday without charge.

But police were still questioning three other members of the local
branch of the conservative and nationalist Great Unity Party over the
Jan. 19 murder of journalist Hrant Dink. The three were scheduled to
appear in court on Wednesday to face possible charges or be released
from custody.

Yasar Cihan, the head of Great Unity Party in the Black Sea port city
of Trabzon, was detained late Sunday and taken to Istanbul for
questioning. Authorities did not say on what grounds Cihan and the
three others were detained, but the politician had admitted giving
money to the family of one of the suspects charged in the killing.
Cihan had insisted the money was a charitable gift – he said he often
helps needy families.

Dink was shot dead outside the offices of his paper, Agos, in
Istanbul. Prosecutors have pressed charges against 10 suspects,
including some former members of the youth wing of Great Unity.

Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Agos newspaper and an
outspoken activist for minority rights and free expression, had been
brought to trial several times for allegedly "insulting Turkishness,"
a crime under Turkey’s penal code.

Dink’s killing prompted international condemnation as well as debate
within Turkey about free speech, and whether state institutions
showed tolerance to militant nationalists.