CASE FILES OF TRABZON AND ISTANBUL WILL NOT BE MERGED

BIAnet.org
April 22 2010
Turkey

The Trabzon 2nd Magistrate Court decided against merging the file
concerned with the prosecution of eight gendarmerie officers accused
of negligence in the murder of journalist Dink with the file in
Istanbul. Moreover, four informants from the Trabzon Gendarmerie will
not be heard.

Erol ONDEROÄ~^LU hukuk@bianet.org Trabzon – BÄ°A News Center22 April
2010, Thursday The Trabzon 2nd Magistrate Criminal Court decided not to
merge the file concerned with the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink with the murder file in Istanbul. Eight gendarmerie officers
stand trial at the court in Trabzon (eastern Black Sea coast) because
they did not take any precautions to prevent the murder of Dink,
then chief editor of the Armenian Agos newspaper, even though they
had information on hand showing Dink as a target.

The Magistrate Court furthermore decided not to hear four informants
from the gendarmerie who have not given any statements yet.

In the session on 16 April, the joint attorneys of the Dink family had
one last time requested the prosecution of the responsible defendants
based on article 83 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) on "intentional
killing by negligent behaviour". The lawyers had emphasized that the
negligence in Trabzon was the reason for the murder of Dink.

The hearing was attended by joint attorneys Hakan Bakırcıoglu, Bahri
Bayram Belen and Cem Halavurt and the defence lawyers of defendants
Hacı Omer Unalır ve Ali Oz, Metin Yıldız, Okan Å~^imsek ve
Veysel Å~^ahin.

File will not be merged with murder file The joint attorneys had
requested the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court concerned with the
murder file to get in touch with the court and investigate a possible
merging of the files. The Trabzon 2nd Magistrate Criminal Court
had decided for lack of jurisdiction at the beginning of the trial,
but the High Criminal Court had dismissed that decision.

Another request was to take the statements of four informants
working in the Trabzon district of Pelitli on behalf of the Trabzon
Gendarmerie. The court heard two of altogether six gendarmerie
officers in the hearing on 25 December and subsequently decided that
there was no need to hear the remaining four officers. The Command
had announced that three of them were still on duty.

Bakırcıoglu: "Informants could have given additional information"
The Court declined all the above mentioned requests and ordered the
joint attorneys to prepare their final speeches for the hearing on
31 May. Lawyer Bakırcıoglu told bianet, "The informants would maybe
have given additional information. However, we have made up our minds".

"The lawyers’ understanding of "negligent" behaviour does not
correspond to the society’s concept of "negligence". It means that
the public officials responsible for preventing the murder by law
‘created the reason for a criminal offence by remaining passively’".

Bakırcıol glu referred to an information record issued by the Trabzon
Gendarmerie Command on 20 January 2007, one day after the murder. The
notification form confirmed, "It is understood that Yasin Hayal,
resident in the Pelitli Municipality of the city of Trabzon, organized
the murder of Dink as a reaction to the comments Dink made against
Turkey during the last months of his life". The notification form was
signed by Ali Oz, Metin Yıldız and Gazi Guney. Lawyer Bakrıcıoglu
claimed that the crime of negligence was committed intentionally.

Dink’s murder came from Pelitli Despite information obtained one year
earlier on a planned attack against Agos newspaper founder Dink,
Ogun Samast came from Pelitli to Istanbul and killed Dink in front
of his office in Å~^iÅ~_li on 19 January 2007.

Former Trabzon Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Oz,
intelligence branch officials Captain Metin Yıldız, military officers
Gazi Gunay and Huseyin Yılmaz, Command Sergeant Major Okan Å~^imÅ~_ek,
Special Sergeants Veysel Å~^ahin, Hacı Omer Unalır and Onder Araz
are facing prison sentences of up to two years on the grounds of
"negligence". (EO/VK)