GENDARMERIE OFFICERS APPEAR AT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE, REJECT TALKING OVER CASE ON SLAIN JOURNALIST

Turkish Press
April 28 2008

ANKARA – Two Turkish gendarmerie officers were summoned Thursday at
a human rights committee of Turkish parliament over the killing of
Turkish-Armenian journalist, but they refused to give information
about the case until after being heard by a court of law, committee
sources said.

Col. Ali Oz, former gendarmerie commander of the Black Sea province
of Trabzon, and Capt. Metin Yildiz, Trabzon`s former gendarmerie
intelligence chief, also failed to attend to an earlier call by the
committee early in April.

"We are here today out of our respect for the parliament but we
will not make any statements before our testimonies are heard by the
court. We can brief the committee in detail after the court hearing,"
Col. Oz was quoted as saying.

Hrant Dink was shot dead outside the offices of his Agos newspaper in
Istanbul in January 2007. Police arrested the gunman and a suspected
associate who was identified as Yasin Hayal.

Acting on the testimonies of two other gendarmerie officers who were
arrested on the charges of "neglect of duty," a Trabzon court ordered
a probe against 10 gendarmerie officers, including Oz and Yildiz.

Lawyers of Dink`s family have said in a petition that "the probed
gendarmerie officers had known that Hayal and his friends had been
making plans to kill Dink as early as July 2006, but they had failed
to take necessary measures in an open neglect of duty."