DINK TRIAL RESULTS IN MELEE AS SUSPECTS ENGAGE IN FIGHT
Hurriyet
/domestic/10861347.asp?scr=1
Jan 27 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – Two leading suspects in the murder of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink fought one another in the
eighth hearing of the case in a local court in BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_.
Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, two suspected inciters of Dink’s murder
argued and Hayal struck Tuncel, who was sitting in front of him.
The brother of Yasin Hayal, Osman Hayal, said, "My brother is a victim
of a plot. Everything happened after he met Erhan Tuncel," reported
the private news site CNNTurk. Tuncel intervened and said, "What does
it have to do with me?" Yasin Hayal replied, "You get the money,
you get the wage, I have the trouble." Hayal then punched Tuncel,
causing the judge to send them out of the courtroom. After the murder,
it was disclosed that Tuncel was working as a police informer at the
time. The gunman, Ogun Samast, did not participate in the hearing.
Not remembering Osman Hayal, who is being tried without being kept
in custody, testified in court that he had nothing to do with the
murder. Hayal said the only thing he knew was that he was in Istanbul
on the date of murder and nothing more.
"It is a complete coincidence that I left Istanbul one hour after the
murder," he said. Arzu Becerik, the Dink family’s lawyer, said there
were contradictions in Osman Hayal’s testimonies. Hayal had given
evidence previously as a witness and was added as a suspect to the case
after it was disclosed he was in Istanbul on the date of the murder.
Zafer Uskul, head of the parliamentary commission on human rights,
Sebahat Tuncel and Akın Birdal, Democratic Society Party, or DTP,
deputies, Ufuk Uras, deputy of the Freedom and Solidarity Party, or
ODP, and the Dink family also participated in the hearing, private
news site BÄ°ANET reported. Dink was shot and died on Jan. 17, 2007,
in central Å~^iÅ~_li in front of the building of the multilingual
weekly Agos, where he was the editor in chief.
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