HRANT DINK FINALLY ACQUITTED

Today’s Zaman
June 15 2007

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, slain in January, was
officially acquitted in two court cases concluded yesterday at an
Ýstanbul court.

Three other defendants who were facing charges of "insulting
Turkishness" and "attempting to influence the judiciary" were also
acquitted, though a third similar case opened at a later date will
continue.

The two court cases were sent back to a criminal court in the Þiþli
district after the Court of Appeals ordered a retrial. Retrial
of the cases was originally scheduled to begin in February but
it was postponed to yesterday, June 14, following Dink’s Jan. 19
assassination by a teenage gunman in downtown Ýstanbul. Dink, who
was the editor of the bilingual Agos daily, was facing charges of
insulting Turkishness under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code and of attempting to influence the judiciary’s functioning
under Article 288 in those two cases.

Two of the defendants, Dink’s son Arat Dink, and Agos editor Serkis
Seropyan, appeared in the court for a retrial session of the cases.

Lawyers for the defendants demanded acquittal, saying elements of
the crime were not in place. The court agreed and acquitted all the
defendants in the case.

A similar case in which Dink and other defendants face the same
charges of insulting Turkishness was postponed to a later date to
allow defense lawyers to prepare their plea.

Dink had become a hated figure for ultranationalists for his comments
over an alleged Armenian genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman
Empire. He called for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and
was a sharp critic of the Armenian diaspora for its uncompromising
stance against Turkey.

Before his death, Dink had complained that the charges of "insulting
Turkishness" against him made him a target of nationalist anger.

–Boundary_(ID_3shvbulRX3AZazUpZY8bsw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress