COURT REQUESTS PROBE INTO TIES BETWEEN DINK, ERGENEKON CASES

Today’s Zaman
Jan 28 2009
Turkey

Erhan Tuncel (C) claimed that Yasin Hayal told him that what he did
was worth being imprisoned for 40 years.

At the eighth hearing of the Hrant Dink murder trial, the court
announced its decision to ask Ergenekon prosecutors to investigate
Col. Ali Oz, who is accused of disregarding information related to
the 2007 murder of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor before the
assassination.

At the 14th Ä°stanbul Criminal Court on Monday, responding to the
demands of the lawyers representing the Dink family, the court stated
that "in order to reveal the organized structure behind the murder
of Hrant Dink," telephone records and bank accounts belonging to Oz
should be investigated by the prosecutors who are involved in the
investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine organization charged with
attempting to overthrow the government.

Retired Lt. Col. Ali Oguz Caglar, former Trabzon gendarmerie public
security branch director, confirmed in July the testimonies of two
gendarmes who said they had informed their superior officer, Oz,
about the intelligence regarding assassination plans before Dink’s
murder but had given false statements during the investigation under
pressure from Oz.

In addition, the court also decided to ask the 13th Ä°stanbul Criminal
Court, which is handling the Ergenekon case, for the phone records
of the defendants who have been detained in the Ergenekon case to
be scrutinized to find out if there are links between the Ergenekon
suspects and Oz.

The court also asked the General Staff and the Air Forces Command to
submit the recordings from a seminar titled "Missionary Activities
in Turkey," given by Sevgi Erenerol, a defendant in the Ergenekon
case and the spokesperson for a group called the Turkish Orthodox
Patriarchate. She had given the seminar at the General Staff and the
Air Forces Command.

The court also decided on Monday to bar Fuat Turgut, suspect Yasin
Hayal’s lawyer in the Dink murder, from his role as counsel. Turgut,
who insulted Armenians at the hearings, was also taken into custody
under the investigation into Ergenekon.

During Monday’s trial, the court also decided to release suspects
Mustafa Ozturk, Zeynel Abidin Yavuz and Tuncay Uzundal.

Meanwhile, Erhan Tuncel, another suspect linked to the Dink murder,
claimed on Monday that Hayal, one of the main suspects who earlier
confessed to inciting the murder, told Tuncel that what he did was
worth being imprisoned for 40 years. The next hearing in the Dink
case will be April 20.

–Boundary_(ID_BQPPMyLqvNIMrmf3Ocw/xw)–