POLICE OF TURKEY DESTROY FILE ON DINK MURDER SUSPECT
ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 4 2007
ArmInfo. The Police of Turkey have destroyed the important file on
the murder of Hrant Dink.
The Turkish newspaper "Zaman" reports with reference to the Turkish
private NTV station that the police file on a prime suspect in
the murder case of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has been
destroyed on grounds that the file was a "state secret". The Istanbul
court, which is currently trying 19 suspects in the murder of Dink,
who was shot outside his newspaper’s office by an ultranationalist
teenager in January 2007, had not demanded to see the police files
on Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant facing trial for having
incited the gunman to kill Dink.
The newspaper says that the court’s request was turned down by the
Intelligence Department, where Tuncel’s file is stored, which said
the document was destroyed to protect state secrets. Yet, the source
reports that the prosecutors carrying out the investigation had seen
the police file on Tuncel, a former informant who worked for the
Trabzon police. However, the file was apparently destroyed before the
court had a chance to see the document. Erdal Dogan, a lawyer
representing the Dink family, said this was a "legal scandal." The
court rejected Dogan’s request for the file a second time, saying it
was "confidential." Dogan said their demands would continue. "This
secret cannot be hidden from the court even though it is a state
secret. This is a violation of the Law of Procedures," he said.
According to the source, prior to the second hearing of the trial,
tape recordings of a phone conversation between police officer Muhittin
Zenit and Tuncel were leaked to the media. The conversation suggests
that Zenit knew about the plot to murder Dink earlier.
However, the request of Dink’s family lawyers to start an investigation
into police officer Zenit in Monday’s hearing was overruled. The
controversy over Tuncel’s file is likely to deepen concerns over a
possible cover-up by state authorities in the murder.
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 coined to describe
hard-line nationalists in the bureaucracy and security forces who
are prepared to subvert the law for their own political ends.
The newspaper says that there were also reports in the Turkish press
suggesting that the teenager accused of killing Dink was probably
attempting to mislead the judges in hopes of winning a reduction
in his sentence when he told the court during Monday’s hearing that
he regretted his actions and claimed he had carried out the slaying
under the influence of drugs. "Blood tests taken immediately after
his arrest less than 24 hours after the murder revealed that he had
not taken drugs prior to the crime", the source says.