TURKISH EX-MINISTER MAY BE TRIED OVER DINK MURDER

19:09, 07 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Former Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler, who was the governor
of Istanbul when Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was shot dead
outside his newspaper’s office in Ã…~^iÃ…~_li, Istanbul, on Jan. 19,
2007, may be tried on the charge of negligence in preventing the
murder, but his case file has gone missing, Today’s Zaman reports.

Guler’s parliamentary immunity will automatically be lifted on June
7 when the elections are held in Turkey. The Istanbul Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office had previously filed a complaint against Guler
for negligence in preventing Dink’s murder when he was serving as
Ä°stanbul governor in 2007.

The complaint was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeals’ Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office for an investigation to be launched against Guler
as he was a minister at the time of the complaint. However, sources
within the Supreme Court of Appeals’ Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office
recently stated that they had never received the complaint sent by
the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

As part of an ongoing investigation into Dink’s murder, various
high-ranking state officials have testified as suspects based on
allegations of negligence and misconduct directed at them. Among them
are two former heads of the National Police Department’s intelligence
unit — Sabri Uzun and Ramazan Akyurek — a former police chief, Ali
Fuat Yılmazer, former Trabzon Police Chief ReÅ~_at Altay, former
Trabzon Police intelligence branch chief Faruk Sarı and former
İstanbul Deputy Governor Ergun Gungör. Other high-profile figures
have been called to testify as suspects, including former Istanbul
Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Ä°stanbul Police Department
intelligence unit chief Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler.

Dink was shot and killed by an ultranationalist teenager. The hitman,
Ogun Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial. Since then, lawyers
for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have presented
evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another suspect,
Yasin Hayal, was given a life sentence for inciting Samast to commit
murder.

The retrial started in September of 2014, when the Ä°stanbul 5th
High Criminal Court complied with a ruling from the Supreme Court
of Appeals in May of 2013 overturning a lower court’s ruling that
acquitted the suspects in the Dink murder case of charges of forming
a terrorist organization. This decision paved the way for the trial
of public officials on charges of misconduct.