GENDARMERIE COMMANDER IN DINK CASE GETS AWAY WITH "NEGLIGENCE"

BIA
Feb 19 2009
Turkey

A Trabzon court has decreed that Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Oz and
five other soldiers will be tried for negligence for not preventing
the murder of journalist Hrant Dink.

The Trabzon 2nd Heavy Penal Court has decided that Commander
Colonel Ali Oz and five other soldiers shall be tried at the
Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace for not preventing the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007.

Dink family lawyers have demanded that Oz and the other soldiers be
brought to the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court, where the main Dink
murder case is being heard, as suspects. However, they will now be
tried at the Trabzon court. They stand accused of negligence rather
than abusing their position.

Gendarmerie cases will probably be merged Following the statements of
two other gendarmerie officers, Sergeant Major Okan Å~^imÅ~_ek and
Sergeant Veysel Å~^ahin, who are standing trial at the Trabzon 2nd
Criminal Court of Peace Oz and five intelligence officers, Captain
Metin Yıldız, Non-commissioned Officers Gazi Gunay and Huseyin
Yılmaz, as well as Sergeants Hacı Omer Unalır and Onder Araz will
be tried at the same court.

Their trial will begin on 6 May, and just like Å~^imÅ~_ek and Å~^ahin,
they will be tried for negligence, facing between six months and
two years imprisonment. It is expected that the two cases of the
gendarmerie officers will be merged.

Meanwhile, the next hearing of the main murder court case in Istanbul
will take place on 20 April. A total of twenty people, five of them
detained, stand accused at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court. (EO/AG)