INQUIRIES INTO POSSIBLE TURKISH POLICE NEGLIGENCE IN DINK CASE

Hurriyet
APril 21 2010
Turkey

Inspectors searching for signs of police negligence in the murder of
prominent journalist Hrant Dink reportedly ignored important statements
by Turkey’s former police intelligence chief.

According to Wednesday’s edition of the daily Milliyet, former
Intelligence Unit Chief Sabri Uzun’s statement implicated several
police officers in the mishandling of an intelligence report.

On Oct. 23, 2009, inspectors Mustafa Uckuyu and Mehmet Canoglu asked
Uzun through a written statement whether there had been any negligence
in an intelligence report about Dink that they had obtained.

The intelligence report, dated Feb. 17, 2006, said "an action that
would create repercussions would be taken against Dink."

On Nov. 4, 2009, Uzun said in a written statement that there had been
no negligence in the mentioned report. However, after a short while,
Uzun obtained the full version of the mentioned report after realizing
that some information had been hidden from him.

Uzun called the inspectors back and said he wanted to provide
additional information. In his additional response to inspectors,
Uzun said Ali Fuat Yılmazer, a police chief at a lower-ranking
intelligence unit, had hid the report from him. The date of Uzun’s
additional response was Dec. 4, 2009.

Inspectors did not include Uzun’s additional response in their reports,
however. Instead, they wrote Nov. 19 as the date of their inspection
report, suggesting that Uzun’s additional response had arrived later.

Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was murdered on Jan.

19, 2007, in front of the building of the multi-lingual weekly Agos
in Istanbul’s central Å~^iÅ~_li district, while a juvenile murder
suspect, Ogun Samast, was detained afterwards.

Samast was from the Black Sea province of Trabzon, in which the murder
was alleged to have been organized.

Later, Erhan Tuncel was also detained as a suspected accomplice to
the murder – after which it was revealed that he was also a police
informant.

Police allegedly neglected to protect Dink despite intelligence
reports indicating he was a target.