ERGENEKON PROSECUTOR SUGGESTS WITNESS FOR DINK MURDER TRIAL
Today’s Zaman
14 October 2009, Wednesday
Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz, who is the chief investigator assigned to
the case of Ergenekon, a clandestine group charged with plotting to
overthrow the government, has proposed that a witness who testified
to him about the Ergenekon case become a witness with his identity
withheld in the murder trial of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
the Star newspaper wrote yesterday.
Dink was the editor-in-chief of the bilingual Agos daily until he was
killed in January of 2007. The 11th hearing of the murder suspects’
trial took place on Monday with suspects Ogun Samast, Erhan Tuncel,
Yasin Hayal, Ahmet Iskender and Ersin Yolcu brought to the courtroom
by prison guards. Lawyers representing the co-plaintiffs in the
Dink trial have long alleged that the Dink murder was the doing of
Ergenekon. In the latest hearing they also petitioned the 14th High
Criminal Court to contact the prosecutors investigating Ergenekon and
request a copy of documents that describe the organization’s schemes
against religious minorities in Turkey.
In the 11th hearing of the Dink trial on Monday, the panel of judges
also took up a request from Prosecutor Oz, who proposed that the
court hear a person identified as B.C. as a secret witness. Oz also
sent B.C.’s earlier testimony to court where he said, "I have voice
and video recordings about the Dink murder."
Also on Monday, co-plaintiff lawyer Fethiye Cetin stated that Dink’s
murder, along with that of an Italian priest in 2006 and the 2007
slaying of three Christians in Malatya, was part of an operation
carried out by Ergenekon. Cetin stated that the acts of some Ergenekon
suspects in turning Hrant Dink into a target for ultranationalists
were very "open." She recalled that when Dink was facing charges
under Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 301, which then criminalized
"insulting Turkishness," some of the people who are in jail now as
alleged Ergenekon members brought cro acked Dink and his supporters
as they entered and left the courtroom.
In the hearing, the handgun used to shoot Dink was brought into
court. The hit man, Ogun Samast, said he couldn’t remember the gun. In
response to a query from the presiding judge stating disbelief,
Samast said: "It’s been three years since. I used the gun in the
incident. The last time I saw it was in Samsun." Later, he asked to
hold the gun to remember more details about it. "I can’t remember
fully, but it was this gun," he said. Yasin Hayal also spoke at this
time without asking for permission, confirming that this was the gun
they used. "I gave it to him. Now the magazine is rusty, it used not
to be." The trial was adjourned until Feb. 8, 2010.