SOLDIER GETS PRISON SENTENCE FOR OBSCENE GESTURE AT DINK TRIAL

Today’s Zaman
Feb 28 2008
Turkey

A gendarmerie soldier who made an obscene gesture at journalists as he
was escorting O.S., the alleged killer of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, from prison to court last year has been sentenced to
prison, the head of a parliamentary committee announced yesterday
in Ankara.

Parliament’s Human Rights Commission Chairman Zafer Uskul said he had
asked the commission to investigate the event, which occurred on Oct.

1 last year, at the end of the hearings on the Dink murder. The
gendarmerie soldier, Lokman Er, had gestured from within a vehicle at
the journalists outside. Er was photographed making the obscene sign.

During the investigation, Er said he had made the gesture
unintentionally because he was disturbed by the journalists. Uskul,
speaking to the press yesterday, said the soldier had been punished
with a prison sentence "as needed," however, did not specify the
duration Er is expected to serve in prison.