TURKISH OFFICER DENIES ANY INFORMATION ON JOURNALIST MURDER

Hurriyet
July 21 2008
Turkey

An officer of the Turkish army rejected Monday the claims of being
informed prior to the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink.

"I don’t remember any document regarding the assassination of Hrant
Dink," Colonel Ali Oz, the gendarmerie field officer of Trabzon at
the time of incident said in his interrogation in the northwestern
province of Bursa.

Oz and Captain Metin Yildiz claimed for failing to act on information
received prior to the assassination. Turkey’s northeastern province
Trabzon governor’s office gave the permission for the investigation
after assessing a report of the inspectors from the Turkish Interior
Ministry on Sunday.

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.

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