INVESTIGATORS FACE PROBE FOR DINK CASE COVER-UP

Daily Sabah, Turkey
March 2 2015

DAILY SABAH
ISTANBUL

Two Interior Ministry investigators face criminal probe for ignoring
serious charges made against Gulenist police officers concerning the
murder of journalist Hrant Dink

Two Interior Ministry investigators face a criminal probe and dismissal
for covering up the complicity of police officers in the Jan. 19,
2007 murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.

According to a Yeni Þafak report, the Prime Ministry Inspection Council
published a report, signed by then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan,
on Oct. 10, 2008, accusing former Police Department Intelligence
Chief Ramazan Akyurek and Istanbul Police Department Intelligence
Chief Ali Fuat Yýlmazer of negligence in the investigation into the
murder of Dink.

The Interior Ministry assigned two investigators, Mustafa Uckuyu and
Mehmet Canoðlu, to assess the case against the two senior officers. In
their report published on Nov. 9, 2009, the investigators dismissed
the claims made in the report based on testimonies of other police
officers, later proved to be involved in the cover up. The report
absolved Yýlmazer and Akyurek of any culpability and dismissed claims
that Yasin Hayal, the teenager who pulled the trigger, was part of
a terrorist group.

The report created uproar at the Prime Ministry Inspection Council,
which filed criminal complaints against intelligence officers
including Akyurek and Yýlmazer, who are accused of having close
links with the controversial Gulen Movement. The complaints could
be processed only after Gulen operatives within the police and the
judiciary were removed. Akyurek and Yýlmazer are now under arrest as
part of the wiretapping investigation and the Dink investigation. The
two Interior Ministry investigators who were part of the cover up
now face a criminal probe that may result in their dismissal.