From: Sebouh Z Tashjian <sebouhz_tashjian@yahoo.com.au>
Subject: Little progress in latest Hrant Dink trial hearing

AZG Armenian Daily #088, 09/05/2008

Turkey

LITTLE PROGRESS IN LATEST HRANT DINK TRIAL HEARING,
BUT PRESS TO BE ADMITTED TO NEXT ONE

Little significant progress was made during the fifth
hearing on 28 April in Istanbul in the trial of the 19
people accused of the January 2007 murder of Hrant
Dink, a journalist of Armenian origin. Eight of the
defendants in the trial, which began 15 months ago,
have been detained since shortly after the murder.

One of the defendants, Coskun Igci, a police informer
in the eastern city of Trabzon, the home town of most
of the defendants, was due to have been questioned
during the 28 April hearing but he could not testify
as he was not represented by a lawyer.

Igci previously testified to a Trabzon court that he
had informed two police officers that Yasin Hayal, one
of the accused masterminds, was planning to kill Dink.
As a result of that statement, the two police officers
said they had passed on the information to their
superiors, and accused them of failing to take any
action.

The Istanbul court said it would provide Igci with a
lawyer for the next hearing on 7 July, which should be
open to the press because the accused gunman, Ogün
Samast, turns 18 on 28 June. Until now the press have
been barred from the hearings on the grounds that
Samast was a minor.

One of the defendants, Irfan Özkan, who was released
on 2 July 2007, gave damning testimony at the 28 April
hearing. He confirmed that he had heard Ümit Öksüz, a
Trabzon youth and friend of Samast, say: "A group from
Istanbul organized an important meeting in Trabzon
before the murder at which it was asked who was going
to shoot the journalist. When Samast stepped forward
to say ?I will do it,? everyone applauded."

When asked by one of the Dink family lawyers about the
participants at this meeting, Özkan refused to answer,
saying Öksüz himself should provide the information.

The court agreed to a request by the Dink family?s
lawyers for the Istanbul and Trabzon prosecutor?s
offices to be asked to provide situation reports on
the investigations under way into Istanbul police
officers, including police chief Celalettin Cerrah,
his head of intelligence and their aides, and into
gendarmes in Trabzon.

The Dink family?s lawyers is also seeking access to
official records that would help them to establish
what contacts Hayal may have developed during a
previous spell in prison in October 2004 after bombing
a McDonald?s restaurant in Trabzon. They have asked
for access to the prison computer in which all
prisoner visits are recorded but the prison
administration had not responded.

Finally, the Dink family?s lawyers also filed a
complaint against Hayal?s lawyer, Fuat Turgut,
accusing him under article 216.2 of the criminal code
of "inciting hate" by insulting novelist Orhan Pamuk
and Armenians during the hearing and in the presence
of journalists.

Reporters Without Borders, Press release