OFFICERS TO STAND TRIAL IN DINK CASE

Hurriyet
Feb 18 2009
Turkey

ANKARA – One Gendarmerie colonel and five officers will be tried
in court in the Black Sea province of Trabzon for dereliction of
duty as part of the murder investigation of Armenian weekly Agos
Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink.

Dink, a Turk of Armenian decent, was murdered by an ultranationalist
teenager on Jan. 19, 2007, in front of the multilingual weekly Agos
in Istanbul and created a national uproar. Dink, who was found guilty
of insulting "Turkishness" in an article he had written, had become
a target for nationalist anger.

The suspect was captured soon after the murder while he was trying
to return to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.

The police later arrested Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal for inciting
the teenager to murder the journalist. A total of 20 suspects are
on trial for Dink’s murder. Testimonies of Gendarmerie officers
and suspects had implied that Col. Ali Oz, the Trabzon Gendarmerie
commander at the time, had ignored informants who said there was a
plan to assassinate Dink.

A high court in Ankara decided yesterday that the Trabzon Second
Criminal Court had the authority to try Oz and his five junior
Gendarmerie officers, reported Dogan news agency. All six will face
charges of dereliction of duty for knowing but doing nothing about
plans to kill Dink. The charges carry a prison term of between six
months and two years. Two noncommissioned Gendarmerie officers are
already on trial for the same charges. It is expected that the cases
will be merged.