TURKISH AUTHOR SENER FEARS PRISON TERM AWAITS AFTER HEARLNG
Hurriyet
April 28 2010
Turkey
Nedim Å~^ener, a reporter for the daily Milliyet, said Wednesday after
his latest hearing that he is likely to be the first person sentenced
in a case related to the assassination of Hrant Dink.
Å~^ener said that the prosecutor dropping two charges against him for
obtaining and revealing classified documents supported his claim that
he reported only the facts of the Dink murder in his book. He still
faces one charge and up to three years in prison.
Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin and former editor in chief
of the daily Agos, was murdered on Jan. 19, 2007. Parliamentary
investigations into the assassination found evidence that the
intelligence departments of the police and the gendarmerie had
information about the planning of the murder but failed to prevent it.
Å~^ener, author of the book "Hrant Dink Cinayeti ve Ä°stihbarat
Yalanları" (The Hrant Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies) is facing
trial for "making targets of civil servants fighting terrorism,"
"obtaining secret documents," and "exposing secret documents."
During the last hearing of the trial, Public Prosecutor Celal Kara
demanded a prison sentence of one to three years for Å~^ener for "making
targets of civil servants fighting terrorism." He dropped the other
charges, however, because the secret documents in the book were no
longer classified since they could be reached by multiple parties in
the Dink assassination case. Lawyers of the police argued that the
documents should still be considered classified regardless of their
inclusion in the case dossier.
Å~^ener, who recently won the Abdi Ä°pekci Journalism Award of the Year
for his reporting on the Dink assassination, spoke to the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review in light of recent developments in the
case. Å~^ener said the prosecutor had merged the complaints of the four
police officers and asked for a penalty of one to three years,
otherwise the sentence could be up to 12 years.
The total of the original sentence demanded with the three charges was
up to 20 years. "This is positive but [still] not normal," said Å~^ener,
adding that the names of the police officers were mentioned in the
press before his book was released. Å~^ener said although the prosecutor
dropped some of the charges the court could still decide to act on
them. The final hearing will be July 4. Å~^ener is also on trial for two
other cases related to his book, potentially facing 4.5 and eight
years in prison.