THE 12TH HEARING FOR THE CASE OF HRANT DINK HELD IN ISTANBUL

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.02.2010 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The 12th hearing for the case of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot by an ultranationalist
teenager outside the Agos weekly in 2007 was held in Istanbul.

The hearing took place with the participation of five of the defendants
under arrest, Ogun Samast, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ahmet Ä°skender
and Ersin Yolcu. Among a total of 20 defendants, Osman Hayal and
Mustafa Ozturk, who were released pending trial, were also in court.

The court’s chief justice, Erkan Canak, said the telephone numbers
and records of the relevant police officers had been requested from
the Trabzon Police Department but the request had been refused as
the release of such documents would lead to "lapses in security."

Canak also said that intelligence reports written prior to Dink’s
murder had been requested and had arrived at the court. The Dink
family lawyer, Bahri Belen, said all documents coming from the police
department talked about the "confidentiality of documents" but pointed
out that documents regarding crimes should not be secret.

The hearing will continue with the defense of Tuncel, one of the
key suspects, who reportedly had worked with the police and the
gendarmerie as an informant and gave them tip-offs about the plot
to kill Dink several months before the assassination. Tuncel, who
belongs to the Grand Unity Party (BBP), argued against the fact that
he had been labeled as a leader in a terrorist organization. He said
this was only because of his "political views."

Tuncel asked BBP leaders YaÅ~_ar Cihan and Halis Egemen, who were at
the court, whether or not the party approved of Dink’s murder. Egemen
said they would never support an act of murder and they "love the
created because of the creator. This view does not discriminate
between Muslims or non-Muslims."

At the last hearing of the Dink trial last October, 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, a neo-nationalist
gang believed to be the extension of a clandestine network of groups
with members in the armed forces.

Hrant Dink (September 15, 1954 – January 19, 2007) was a
Turkish-Armenian journalist and columnist and editor-in-chief
of Agos bilingual newspaper. Dink was best known for advocating
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and human and minority rights in
Turkey. Charged under the notorious article 301 of the Turkish
Criminal Code, Dink stood a trial for insulting Turkishness. After
numerous death threats, Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul in
January 2007, by Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist.