Hürriyet, Turkey
July 20 2008

Governor allows two turkish soldiers investigation in Dink case

The governor of a norhwestern province of Turkey permitted Sunday an
investigation to be opened into a colonel and a captain for failing to
act on information received prior to the assassination of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist and hiding the intelligence.

Nuri Okutan, the governor of Trabzon, said the governor’s office
decided to give the permission for the investigation after assesing a
report of the inspectors from the Turkish Interior Ministry.

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

Inspectors asked earlier this week for the governor’s permission to
bring Col. Ali Oz and Capt. Metin Yildiz before the court for failing
to act on information received prior to the assassination of Hrant
Dink.

Two lower-ranked soldiers told the inspectors that they had informed
Col. Ali Oz and Capt. Metin Yildiz about intelligence regarding the
assasination of Dink, while Oz said he may have forgotten about this
information.

The trial began in July 2007. Prosecutors have asked for a prison term
of 18 to 24 years for Dink’s assassin and life sentences for two key
suspects, Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal, for inciting to murder.