HRANT DINK’S HIT MAN WAS NOT SAMAST, NEW WITNESSES CLAIM

armradio.am
21.04.2009 15:39

Five individuals convicted of unrelated crimes testified as witnesses
yesterday in the murder trial of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, who was shot dead in broad daylight by an ultra-nationalist
teenager outside the office of his newspaper, Agos, in Istanbul on
Jan. 19, 2007.

Witness Volkan Eryol, who testified in the Istanbul 14th High Criminal
Court yesterday, said he had heard a cellmate named Ertugrul Balci
state that it was not Ogun Samast, the teenager who is currently
standing trial as the suspected hit man, but another person who shot
Dink on that day, Today’s Zaman reported.

Another witness, Å~^inasi Å~^enturk, said he had heard details
from Balci.

The two witnesses said they had petitioned the court to testify when
they heard the information Balci gave them in prison. In his testimony,
Å~^enturk said: "Balci told us that the individuals that are currently
suspects in the Dink incident actually did not have anything to do
with the murder. Normally, we wouldn’t have paid attention, but Balci
corresponded with important people. He also said he knew who the real
murderer was."

The Dink family lawyers had previously stated their suspicions that
a second person accompanied Samast on the day of the murder. Veli
Halis Celik, another inmate at the Silivri Prison Complex where the
other witnesses are also serving jail time for unrelated crimes,
gave the same testimony.

A group of people identifying themselves as "Friends of Hrant" held
a demonstration yesterday on Barbaros Boulevard in BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_. The
group complained that authorities were unable to uncover who had issued
the order to kill Dink although more than two years have passed since
the murder. The group later sang songs in memory of Dink and dispersed
without major incident.

Celik said Balci, who gave the information to the witnesses, was the
son of Å~^ukru Balci, a former police chief at the Istanbul Police
Department.

Samast, the prime suspect in the Dink murder trial, was questioned by
the Dink family lawyers yesterday. Samast refused to respond to the
lawyers’ question on whether he had testified at the Prime Ministry
Inspection Board.

In response to a question on how he was able to find the location
of the Agos daily in Istanbul, he said he had asked around. Samast
appeared reluctant to reply to the lawyers’ questions in court
yesterday.

A delegation of five lawyers from France also followed yesterday’s
trial.

The French lawyers said they came to show solidarity with the Dink
family.

The Istanbul Bar Association released a press statement on the
delegation’s visit, saying the Paris Bar Association had requested
to join the trial as observers; a req uest which was denied by the
Istanbul Bar Association on the grounds that if delegation was granted
observant status, it could harm the independence of the judiciary. The
Istanbul Bar Association said they had invited the delegation from
Paris to monitor the trial not as an institution, but as individuals.