CALL FOR JUSTICE AS EDITOR’S ALLEGED KILLERS APPEAR IN COURT

Reuters
The South African Star , South Africa
Oct 2 2007

Istanbul – The chief suspect in the murder of Turkish-Armenian editor
Hrant Dink has told a court he was forced to carry out the killing.

The case is seen as an important test for Ankara’s European Union
membership bid.

Hundreds of protesters, fearing a state cover-up, demonstrated
yesterday, outside the second hearing of the case at the Istanbul court
with banners proclaiming: "We are all witnesses. We demand justice."

The EU opened membership talks with Turkey in 2005 and sees the Dink
case as a test for a judicial system often accused of conservative
bias.

Police imposed heavy security outside the court, where 19 suspects
were being tried over the killing of Dink, who gunned down outside
his Istanbul office in January by a 17-year-old who has confessed to
the killing.

The hearing was closed to the media but lawyers representing Dink
quoted the 17-year-old suspect as saying in his testimony that he
was ordered to carry out the killing by a second suspect. He also
said he took Ecstasy and hashish on the day of the killing.

The lawyer for the second suspect denied his client had given such
an order.

Dink’s lawyers have complained that the murder has not been properly
investigated and have expressed fears for the independence of the
court, reflecting concerns about the possible involvement of Turkey’s
so-called "deep state".

The "deep state" is a term used to describe hardline nationalists in
the bureaucracy and security forces who are prepared to subvert the
law for their own political ends.

At the weekend, Turkey’s liberal Radikal newspaper published the
transcript of a conversation between one of the suspects and an
officer two hours after the shooting which it said showed the officer
was aware of a plan to kill Dink.

The Interior Ministry has launched a probe into the phone conversation.