Agence France Presse
Oct 24 2008

New charge reported in Turkish-Armenian journalist’s murder

ISTANBUL, Oct 24 2008

A 20th suspect has been charged with involvement in the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, the Anatolia news
agency reported Friday.

He is Osman Hayal, the elder brother of the alleged mastermind of the
murder, who is among 19 defendants who went on trial last year.

He is accused of helping and accompanying the self-confessed teenage
gunman, Ogun Samast, when he shot Dink in downtown Istanbul on January
19, 2007.

The prosecution is seeking between 22 and a half and 35 years in jail
for Hayal on charges of "taking part in a murder" and "membership of
an illegal organisation," Anatolia reported.

The 52-year-old Dink, a prominent member of Turkey’s tiny Armenian
community, campaigned for reconciliation but was hated by Turkish
nationalists for calling the World War I massacres of Armenians a
genocide.

The Dink family lawyers say some members of the Turkish security
forces approved of the murder and accuse the police of withholding and
destroying evidence to cover up the killing.

Prosecutors say the security forces received intelligence as early as
2006 of a plot to kill Dink being organised in the northern city of
Trabzon, home of Samast, aged 17 at the time of the murder, and most
of his alleged accomplices.

Two soldiers from the Trabzon gendarmerie intelligence department were
put on trial in January on charges of covering up intelligence.

They testified in court in March they had passed on to their superiors
information of a plot to kill Dink, but said no action was taken.

The case is seen as a test of Ankara’s resolve to eliminate the "deep
state" — a term used to describe security forces acting outside the
law to preserve what they consider Turkey’s best interests.

Dink’s murder sent the country into prolonged shock, and more than
100,000 people took to the streets on the day of his funeral, chanting
"We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all Armenians."