DINK MURDER CASE – EUROPEAN LAWYERS WILL MONITOR EVERY HEARING
Bianet
07 July 2009, Tuesday
Niore of the Paris Bar Association has announced that delegations
from different European bar associations will attend every hearing.
Erol ONDEROÐLU [email protected] Istanbul – BÝA News Center06 July 2009,
Monday Today, 6 July, the tenth hearing of the Hrant Dink murder case
is taking place at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court.
The hearing is being attended by Vincent Niore from the Paris Bar
Association, Alexandre Aslanian from the Union of French Lawyers with
Armenian Origin (AFAJA) and Yves Oschinsky, president of the Brussels
Bar Association.
Niore told bianet that a delegation of European bar lawyers will
attend every hearing: "From now on, we intend to observe the trial
with other bar associations in Europe."
Demand for justice
Niore took part in the "chain of conscience" that was formed in Beyoðlu
on Saturday to demand the trial of all those responsible for the
murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on 19 January 2007.
He said he was "deeply affected" by the display of brotherhood and
friendship at the event.
Following the murder of Hrant Dink, the trial began on 2 July
2007. Although gross negligence, if not worse, has been suspected
to have taken place within the intelligence and security forces,
no public official is no trial in the main murder case.
Eight gendarmerie officers are being tried in a separate case, the
merger of which with the main case has been demanded repeatedly by
the Dink family lawyers. The officers are being tried for negligence.
ECHR has begun to consider the case
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has collected and merged
applications concerning the case and has directed a list of questions
at Turkey, to be answered by November.
Because complaints about negligence in the murder did not bring any
results, lawyers have appealed to the ECHR, which is now examining
files on the Trabzon, Istanbul and Samsun police force and the
Trabzon gendarmerie.
The court has asked Turkey whether the state fulfilled its duty of
protecting the life of Hrant Dink, and whether the journalist was
discriminated against because he was a citizen of Armenian origin.
Prior to his murder, the editor of the weekly Turkish-Armenian Agos
newspaper was handed a suspended six-month prison sentence under
Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code for a series of articles entitled
"Armenian identity".
At a time when he was facing more and more threats on his life,
he appealed to the ECHR against the sentence. Two weeks later, he
was killed.
After his death, family lawyers added further appeals to the ECHR
because no officials from the Trabzon police or gendarmerie or the
Istanbul police have been taken to court.
The last application to the ECHR concerned the "souvenir pictures"
which Samsun police officers took of suspected gunman Ogun Samast
after catching him at the Samsun bus station in the night of 20
January 2007. No officer was tried. (EO/TK/AG)
Click here for pictures of the gathering of "Hrant Dink’s Friends"
prior to the court hearing in Beþiktaþ.