SLAIN TURK EDITOR’S LAWYER URGES INDEPENDENT TRIAL
By Thomas Grove
Reuters
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
29-0747-turkey-editor-trial.html
June 29 2007
ISTANBUL June 29 – A Turkish lawyer said on Friday the murder of
Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink had not been thoroughly investigated
and expressed fears for the independence of a court due to try the
suspected killers.
The killing of Dink in January outside his Istanbul office by
an ultra-nationalist gunman shocked Turks and raised doubts about
freedom of speech in this EU-applicant nation. Some 100,000 people
turned out at Dink’s funeral to show solidarity.
His murder also threw a spotlight on possible links between far-right
gangs and elements in Turkey’s security forces.
The trial of the 17-year-old self-confessed gunman and his suspected
accomplices, who mostly come from the Black Sea city of Trabzon,
begins next Monday.
‘The preliminary investigation has been limited to the place of
planning (Trabzon),’ Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family,
told a news conference.
Prosecutors failed to fully examine links with the scene of the murder
in Istanbul and to investigate properly the criminal organisation
believed to have plotted the killing, she said.
‘To reach a sound verdict, it is necessary to secure the independence
of the court, to ensure the functioning of the democratic system with
all its rules and institutions and to prevent those with power having
any influence over the trial,’ Cetin said.
The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, has long complained
of shortcomings in the country’s judicial system, saying judges and
prosecutors are often open to political and other forms of pressure.
Last year, a prosecutor investigating the possible involvement of
the military in a bombing in southeast Turkey was removed from his
job after his comments angered the army.
NATIONALISTS
Dink had infuriated Turkish nationalists by urging Turkey in his
writings to face up to its responsibility for the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
He had received numerous death threats, but Turkish media say
authorities failed to provide him with proper protection.
After his murder, video footage came to light showing security
officials posing with Dink’s suspected killer in front of the Turkish
flag, reviving fears of a shadowy ‘deep state’ working in collusion
with criminal gangs.
The ‘deep state’ is allegedly made up of hardline nationalists in
the security forces ready to break the law in defence of what they
perceive as Turkey’s vital interests.
Several officials, including the head of police intelligence in
Istanbul, were sacked or reassigned to other jobs over their handling
of the Dink case.
Dink’s widow recently sent a letter to Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan calling for the court case to be accelerated.