‘SOUVENIR PHOTOS’ WITH SUSPECT NOT A CRIME

Turkish Daily News (subscription)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Turkey

SAMSUN – Anatolia News Agency

Two senior police officers charged with negligence over the leaked
photos of police and gendarmerie officers posing with the man suspected
of murdering journalist Hrant Dink were found not guilty yesterday.

An ultra-nationalist teenager gunned down the editor-in-chief of the
Armenian weekly Agos on Jan. 19, 2007 in Istanbul and was captured
by the gendarmerie on his way back to his hometown of Trabzon on the
Black Sea.

The murder of Dink, who was vocal in his criticism of the official
stance on the killings of Armenians in 1915, caused serious domestic
and international criticism. While the Turkish state argues both
Armenians and Turks died in wartime conditions, Armenians say there
was a systematic genocide.

The photos of the suspect with police and gendarmerie officers appeared
in the media, causing a huge embarrassment for the department.

Two senior police officers were charged with "dereliction of duty"
by allowing the photos to be taken and then leaked to the media and
"causing the public to believe the department sympathized with the
murder suspect."

The court said there was no evidence the charged officers were
responsible for the leak and found both defendants not guilty.