20 YEARS FOR MURDER, 28 YEARS FOR MURDER BOOK

Hurriyet
June 11 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – More than two years after Agos editor Hrant Dink was shot
dead, a reporter stands trial for writing about the circumstances
surrounding the murder. For his alleged crimes, he faces 28 years
in prison, eight years more than what the murder suspect would serve
if convicted.

A reporter who wrote a book about the intelligence failures before
and after the murder of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian
weekly Agos, is facing a prison term of 28 years if found guilty. The
chief murder suspect in the case could serve a maximum of 20 years
if convicted.

Milliyet daily reporter Nedim Å~^ener’s book "Dink Murder and
Intelligence Lies" focused on the intelligence deficiencies by
security agencies before and after Dink was shot dead, leading to a
police officer and three senior Police Department intelligence chiefs
filing complaints against him.

Dink, who was prosecuted for insulting Turkishness, was killed in
front of Agos’s office. The chief suspect, a teenage nationalist,
is currently on trial along with several alleged accomplices who are
accused of influencing the culprit.

Milliyet daily reported that the complaints have led the Istanbul
Prosecutor’s Office to charge Å~^ener with publication of secret
information and turning anti-terrorism officials into targets. The
reporter faces a maximum prison term of 28 years if found guilty.

Å~^ener, speaking to Anatolia news agency on his way to the opening
hearing yesterday, said he is facing a total of 28 years in prison if
convicted in two cases on charges of obtaining classified documents
and insulting government officials.

Å~^ener has two trials pending as a result of the
complaints. Yesterday’s trial at the Istanbul Second Court was on
violating official secrets. Å~^ener, who faces up to eight years in
jail on this charge, defended himself by saying that the information
in his book was from phone conversations that were made public on
televisions and newspapers months before his book was printed. "These
conversations are also on the Internet and can be found when one
searches Google," he said.

Å~^ener said the trial aimed at preventing the public from learning
the facts about Dink’s murder and press freedom. He asked the court to
find him not guilty. The judge decided to postpone the trial to another
date for the defendant’s lawyers to prepare for the prosecutor’s case.

Milliyet Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin told Anatolia news agency his
presence at court was to support not only Å~^ener but also press
freedom in Turkey. "We are showing this solidarity in order to
ensure press freedom in respected," he said. The Turkish Journalists’
Association, or TGC, released a statement on the case, seeing it as
"worrying" and a problem for democracy.

It said it was necessary to reassess a law that prosecuted a journalist
for trying to uncover the facts behind Dink’s murder, reported
Milliyet. "Expert journalists like Nedim Å~^ener uncovering crimes
and making the facts public is a service to address the public’s anger
about such crimes," said the TGC. On the issue, Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review’s Editor-in-Chief David Judson said: "Institutions
of free expression and individuals expressing themselves freely have
collectively made great strides in recent years. That some institutions
of the state lag behind in understanding the nature of these important
democratic concepts in unfortunate. But we are confident at the Daily
News that they will mature along with the rest of society."

After the book’s release in January of this year, Muhittin Zenit,
a police officer working at the intelligence division at Trabzon
at the time Dink was assassinated, filed a criminal complaint about
Å~^ener for "targeting personnel in service of fighting terrorism,
obtaining secret documents, disclosing secret documents, violating
the secrecy of communication and attempting to influence fair trial"
through his book.

Case for three other accusations

After the investigation’s end, Prosecutor Selim Berna Altay charged
Å~^ener with "making targets of the personnel in service of fighting
terrorism, and obtaining and declaring secret information that is
forbidden to be declared," asking for a prison term of 20 years. Since
they do not fall under his authority, Altay sent the dossier on
"violation of the secrecy of communication" and "attempting to
influence fair trial" to the Istanbul Second Court. In the meantime,
it was also claimed the book contained the offense of "insulting
governmental institutions," and that too was added to the second
investigation. Prosecutor Ä°smail Onaran handled this investigation
and filed a second case against Å~^ener asking for his imprisonment
for three to eight years.

There is another case ongoing in a Trabzon court against eight
personnel from the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command who are accused
neglecting their duties regarding Dink’s death. The accused are facing
up to two years in prison if found guilty.

"Some of the security personnel that sued me are under investigation
for neglecting their duty for Dink’s murder. They want to punish
the journalist writing about the responsibilities of those people,"
said Å~^ener.