Reporters Sans Frontieres press release, France
October 27, 2008

Turkey: Accused mastermind’s brother now also charged in Dink murder

Osman Hayal, the elder brother of the accused mastermind of
Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink’s murder, has been
charged with "complicity" and "membership of a terrorist
organisation," becoming the 20th person to be formally indicted in
connection with the fatal shooting of Dink in Istanbul on 19 January
2007.

Hayal is alleged to have accompanied the accused shooter, Ogun Samast,
to Istanbul and to have assisted his escape afterwards. Hayal could
get life imprisonment on the complicity charge and 15 years on the
terrorism charge.

When questioned last year, Hayal repeatedly denied being in Istanbul
on the day of the murder. But he was arrested in August of this year
after his mobile phone records reveal that he was after all in the
city on that day.

Questioned during the latest hearing on 13 October in the trial of
Dink’s accused murderers before an Istanbul court, Hayal reluctantly
admitted he was in Istanbul on the day of the murder as his mobile
phone had "emitted a signal from the district of Umranyie" but he said
he lied simply out of fear of being arrested and insisted he never
left his maternal uncle’s depot on the Asian side of the city.

The police nonetheless claim to have a witness, whose identity has not
been revealed, who says Hayal was at the scene of the murder – on
Halaskargazi Avenue in the district of Sisli – and that he was with
Samast.

The next hearing in the murder trial is scheduled for 26
January. Nearly two years have gone by since the murder but the
authorities still have not shed light on the roles of all those
involved.