FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ADMITS NEGLECT OF POLICE IN DINK MURDER

BIAnet.org
April 16 2010
Turkey

In yesterday’s hearing of the case against journalist Å~^ener based on
his book about the murder of Turkish-Armenian jounalist Dink, former
Head of Intelligence Uzun admitted negligence of the police prior to
the assassination. He said the murder could have been prevented.

Berivan TAPAN berivan@bianet.org Istanbul – BÄ°A News Center16 April
2010, Friday Former Head of the Intelligence Department Sabri Uzun gave
his statement in yesterday’s (15 April) hearing of the case against
journalist Nedim Å~^ener. Facing prison sentence of up to 32.5 years
in total, Å~^ener stands trial in three different cases launched on
the grounds of his book "The Dink Murder and the Intelligence Lies".

In the book, he writes about the negligence and attempts to cover up
this negligence of gendarmerie, police and the Turkish secret service
prior to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

In the hearing held at the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance,
Uzun stated that he had no information about the planned killing
of Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper,
since he did not have access to the reports collected from the agents
before they had been archived. Without mentioning his name directly,
Uzun claimed that C Branch Manager Ali Fuat Yılmazer kept the report
from him intentionally.

Uzun: Incriminating information was archived before I could get access
"Related to the period of time Å~^ener is describing in his book,
I said that ‘if the state holds responsibility for the murder of
Hrant Dink, this is my responsibility’, and that is true. There was
the written report notifying about a ‘crucial action to be done’
which referred to the planned murder of Dink. If this report had
reached me before it was archived, this would not have happened".

Å~^ener faces imprisonment of up to 28 under charges of "identifying
officials on anti-terrorist duties as targets". The criminal complaint
against the journalist was filed by Ramazan Akyurek, then Chief of
Police in Trabzon (Black Sea coast), Ali Fuat Yılmazer, C Branch
Manager of the Police Intelligence, intelligence police officer
Muhittin Zenit and Intelligence Branch Manager of the Trabzon Police
Directorate Faruk Sarı.

"They should have informed me by all means" The lawyers of complainant
Zenit asked Uzun whether he decided for protection after every new
report coming in. Uzun replied, "We do not request protection with
every report coming in, but we are talking about killing here. This
is serious. Reports related to planned assassinations come in once
a year or even more rarely. Such a report might only come in once
in ten years. If it comes in, the police and the intelligence are
obliged to meet to discuss the matter and take a decision".

Nedim Å~^ener criticized the question of the lawyers, putting forward
that the murder of Dink was a "project worked out by the police".

"Dink was on trial at the time, he was in the public eye the whole
time", Sener said.

Uzun stated: "I called inspector Mustafa Uckuyu regarding the News
Report (F4) dd. 17 February 2006 which mentioned Hrant Dink and asked
if there was any further information. Uckuyu answered that the report
had a note saying ‘transfer of assignment to the C2 office’. I made
a written statement about this on 4 November 2009 and wrote that the
Police Intelligence performed the duty. The full report reached me
only later on though".

"The inspectors had told me that the report included the information
that a ‘startling action’ was planned related to Hrant Dink. I
was astonished when I had read the full report because it did not
only mention a startling action but comprised information on Dink
to be killed and on weapons and money provided for this. I wrote a
supplementary statement on 4 December 2009. I wrote that ‘I had not
seen the report on 17 February 2006 when I was Head of Department. It
had been kept from me by the C Branch Manager’".

"The information of my book got confirmed" Journalist Å~^ener talked
to bianet after the hearing:

"Sabri Uzun made statement that confirmed what I have written in
my book and went even further. This is why I consider his statement
as very important. In my book I wrote that Head of the Intelligence
Department Ramazan Akyurek and C Branch Manager Ali Fuat Yılmazer
neglected their duties. Uzun spoke as a former head of department at
the time when the murder of Dink was being planned. He said, ‘yes,
the department neglected this duty, because these reports were kept
from me’. I hope that this information will bring light into the Dink
murder case". (BT/VK)