BÄ°A, Turkey
Aug 23 2008

Police Investigates Osman Hayal 19 Months After Dink’s Murder

It has been suspected all along that Ogün Smast, Hrant Dink’s
killer, was not alone at the scene on the day of the murder. Now the
police is considering the possibility that Osman Hayal, Yasin Hayal’s
brother, may have accompanied Ogün Samast on that day.

Bia news center – Trabzon-Ä°stanbul
22-08-2008

Istanbul’ s 14th High Criminal Court asked for additional time to keep
Osman Hayal in custody in connection with the murder of Hrant
Dink. Osman Hayal is brother of the alleged instigator of the murder
case, Yasin Hayal.

Osman Hayal was brought to Istanbul from Tarabzon’s Pelitli region two
days ago on August 20. He was confronted with the eye witnesses and
will be taken to the court after his initial questioning at the Polic
Department is completed (August 23).

Cinmen: If all the responsible parties not punished then the murder
will stay as an unsolved murder

Commenting about the latest developments to the NTV, Ergin Cinmen, one
of the lawyers of the Dink Family, said that the findings that had
shown Osman Hayal’s telephone had been giving a signal from Istanbul
on the day of the murder need to be investigated thoroughly.

Moreover, Cinmen stated that if all those parties in Istanbul and
Trabzon Police Departments, Trabzon Gendarmerie, and the Police
Intelligent Department were not punished for their responsibility and
negligence in the murder, then the case would stay as an unsolved
murder.

Osman Hayal had claimed that he was in Trabzon on the day of the
murder, but his telephone had given signal from
Kısıklı, Istanbul on the same day. The reports in
the media had also claimed that Osman Hayal was in Istanbul on the day
of the murder. Osman Hayal had been denying this so far.

`The real perpetrators are outside, find them’

Osman Hayal had reacted in the statement he had given to the Trabzon
newspaper Ä°lkbahar on January 2008 to the reports that had
appeared in the media that he was in Istanbul on the day of the
murder. He had defended himself using Rakel Dink’s words `Those who
make murderers out of babies’.

`Enough, I wish they do not mess with us anymore. They are trying to
distort it. The real perpetrators are outside. Have them find the real
perpetrator who makes murderers out of babies.’

Police took Osman Hayal into custody after nineteen months

The images broadcasted by Show TV a while ago had shown an individual
talking on his phone with his back turned to the Agos building and
looking occasionally at someone near the building. Later, the same
person is seen watching, with another individual, Ogün Samast’s
running away from the scene and they too disappear in a construction
site.

The identities of these people are still not known. The police is
looking into the possibility that whether or not Osman Hayal might
have accompanied the actual shooter, Ogün Samast, on the day of
the murder, January 19, 2007. They are looking agains at the security
cameras of the bank near the murder scene. (EÃ-/EZÃ-/TB)