HRANT’S FRIENDS: ONCE AGAIN, WE LACK HOPE

Today’s Zaman
14 October 2008, Tuesday
Turkey

A group of people who identify themselves as "Friends of Hrant"
released a press statement yesterday, as the seventh hearing in the
murder case of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink took place at
the Ä°stanbul Criminal Court.

"The one who pulled the trigger is being tried, but who are the real
owners of this gun? During the Ergenekon operations, we read about
a senior police officer saying, ‘This organization is the one who
killed Hrant Dink, but we cannot prove it.’ Should we keep hoping
that the truth will be revealed some day?" the group asked.

Some suspects in the Dink case have been linked to the Ergenekon gang,
a shadowy network believed to have been attempting to carry out a
number of high-profile assassinations.

The statement also talked about the testimony of Capt. Husamettin
Polat, who said at a separate hearing that Col. Ali Oz persistently
refused to deal with information about the murder plot. He also
claimed that Oz wanted the informant, CoÅ~_kun Igcı, to be warned to
"not talk about this incident" after the murder.

The lawyers of the Dink family said the cases were interrelated and
wanted them combined, a demand denied by the court. In addition, the
court did not allow for interrogation of the officers at Ä°stanbul
police headquarters.

Meanwhile, Yasin Hayal, a suspect in the Dink murder case, shouted a
slogan while the gendarmerie transferred him to the court’s holding
cell from the prison vehicle.

Dink was shot dead outside the offices of the Agos newspaper in
Ä°stanbul in January 2007. Police arrested the suspected gunman,
Ogun Samast, and his alleged associate, Hayal, within days. There
are a total of 20 suspects in the case, eight of whom are currently
under arrest.

In the last hearing, Hayal’s uncle, Igcı, stated that he worked
hard to dissuade Hayal from plotting and going through with the
assassination.

–Boundary_(ID_07s+jW5wFvDVlh1 oh9GOLg)–