DINK FAMILY LAWYER QUESTIONS FAIRNESS OF TRIAL
Yonca Poyraz Doðan

Today’s Zaman
Feb 13 2008
Turkey

Erdal Doðan, a lawyer representing the family of slain Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, has said the murder has not been properly
investigated, noting that some of the evidence has been hidden or
destroyed.

"During the preparations for trial, the prosecutor’s office
demanded some information that has not been provided, and during the
investigation process, the court’s demands from security personnel
and institutions have not been fulfilled. If such information is
being withheld, the people behind this crime cannot be revealed,
so we can’t talk about a just trial process," Doðan said yesterday,
following the third hearing on Monday in the trial of defendants
accused of assassinating Dink, who was killed in January of last year
by an ultranationalist youth for allegedly insulting Turkishness.

Referring to the series of police lapses in the handling of the Dink
case and official attempts to protect those who plotted the crime as
reported by the press previously, Doðan said:

"In the report related to how the defendants had been organized
to commit the crime, head of police intelligence Ramazan Akyurek
intervened in the case by calling Yasin Hayal and others planning
the murder merely a group of friends who came together because he
said Dink had insulted Turkishness. Plus he obstructed justice by
ordering the destruction of a 49-page document related to one of the
defendants, Erhan Tuncel. The trial cannot proceed in a healthy manner
because documents containing information on more than 6,000 telephone
calls made by some of the defendants have been destroyed by security
officials in Trabzon [where several suspects who are being tried for
instigating the crime are from]."

Dink was gunned down in broad daylight on Jan. 19 in front of
the headquarters of bilingual Armenian weekly Agos, where he was
editor-in-chief. Following Dink’s murder, many reports suggested that
the police were tipped off about the planned assassination more than
once prior to his execution yet failed to prevent it.

In addition, links have emerged among members of the security forces
in Trabzon, where the killing was planned, in Ýstanbul where it was
executed and in Ankara, where the intelligence was gathered.

A total of 19 suspects, including Dink’s suspected killer, 17-year-old
O.S., and an ultranationalist youth charged with planning the crime,
went on trial for organizing the murder at the 14th High Criminal
Court in the Beþiktaþ district of Ýstanbul.

The trial is being held behind closed doors because O.S. is a minor.

Up to 50 lawyers tried to attend Monday’s hearing, though only 17
were allowed into the courthouse. Security was tight, with police in
riot gear stationed at the courthouse entrance.

One of the lawyers of the Dink family, Fikret Ýlkiz, demanded a bone
analysis test to determine O.S.’ real age again because they objected
to the results of the previous tests. However, the prosecutor made
an objection to this.

At Monday’s hearing, which lasted approximately seven hours, defendants
O.S., Hayal and Tuncay Uzundal, who have been in police custody,
were questioned by their own lawyers and the lawyers of the Dink
family, while Tuncel refused to answer the questions of the Dink
family lawyers.

The attorneys for the defense requested the release of the eight
defendants from police custody but this was to no avail.

The questioning will continue on Feb. 25, with many in the country
following the case closely.

All sessions were recorded by cameras set up in the courtroom for
the first time in Turkish judicial history. The Ýstanbul Public
Prosecutor’s Office ordered cameras to be installed in the courtroom
following the Dink family’s request of audiovisual recording after
their lawyers had accused security officers of covering up intelligence
and evidence after the second hearing of the trial, which resumed in
early October 2007.

The second hearing of suspects was held on Oct. 1, 2007, when
O.S. expressed "regret" for the killing in his testimony.

"I was forced to do this job. I shot Dink out of fear without even
understanding how it happened. I was at my uncle’s place when I came
back to my senses. I could not sleep the entire night. I regret it;
I didn’t know he had a family. I wouldn’t have done it if I had known,"
he said in his testimony.

Malatya case lawyer demands protection

Meanwhile, the lawyer for three murdered Christian victims at the
Zirve Publishing House in the southeastern province of Malatya demanded
protection, saying that he fears for his life.

Attorney Orhan Kemal Cengiz applied to the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office
last week for protection after receiving suspicious letters and calls.

"I was active in preparations for the formation of a group of experts
to investigate the crime. I have become the target of some groups
that have been uncomfortable because the victims have been strongly
represented," he reportedly wrote in his petition.

Last April, three Protestants — two Turks and a German — had their
throats slit at a Bible publishing house.

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