BIA, Turkey
Feb. 26, 2008
Dink Trial: Criminal Organisation is Protected
The fourth hearing has brought no further clarity in the case, as
many of the requests of the joint plaintiffs were refused.
Býa news centre
26-02-2008
Erol ÖNDEROÐLU
On 19 January 2007, the editor-in-chief of the weekly
Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink, was murdered in front of
his office in central Istanbul. The suspected gunman O.S. and
eighteen other, mostly young, men are on trial; eight of them are in
police detention.
At the fourth hearing at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court
yesterday (25 February), suspect Ersin Yolcu was questioned in the
morning. He stands accused of aiding and abetting the crime and faces
15 to 20 years imprisonment.
Again insults…
During the lunch break of the hearing, suspect Yasin Hayal?s lawyer
Fuat Turgut, known for his ultranationalist leanings and aggressive
manner, insulted the joint attorneys. He also insulted Armenians in
general.
The joint attorneys demanded that the court president remove Turgut
>From the court room. Judge Erkan Canak warned Turgut.
One of the joint attorneys, Kezban Hatemi, told journalists during
the break that gunman suspect O.S. had insulted her.
Requests by joint attorneys
The lawyers for the Dink family had made three demands prior to the
hearing:
Arguing that the minutes of the hearing were insufficient to prepare
their case, they have requested access to the recording of the
hearing. The third hearing of the case was recorded and recording
will continue during the case.
Before Hrant Dink was murdered, he was warned by two intelligence
officers after being called to the Istanbul governor?s office. The
governor?s office has so far refused to identify these officers. In
an article entitled ?Why I have been chosen as a target?, Dink wrote
about his visit to the governor?s office in 2004 and said that two
people ?warned? him.
It has emerged that suspect Yasin Hayal was being monitored by the
police prior to the murder, albeit under suspicion of al Qaida
activities. The joint attorneys have demanded that police records be
sent to the court so that Hayal?s connections be investigated
further.
Court refused most requests
Because gunman suspect O.S. was aged 17 at the time of the murder,
the court hearings are closed to the public and the press. Despite a
forensic medical report estimating O.S.?s bone age at 19, the court
has refused to reconsider his age.
The court has also refused to link the cases of two gendarmerie
officers in Samsun and two police officers in Trabzon with the main
case, and it refused the demand for questioning of the intelligence
officers whose identity the Istanbul governor?s office is protecting.
According to Fethiye Cetin, one of the joint attorneys, the refusal
to unite the cases is protecting the criminal organisation behind the
murder.
The request of joint attorneys to have access to the CD recordings
(audio and visual) of the third hearing on 11 February was also
refused by the court.
One request which was granted was that the technical monitoring
reports on Yasin Hayal and Mustafa Öztürk, the former leader of the
nationalist Alperenler Hearth organisation, will be presented to
court.
Four of the suspects who are being tried without detention are
members of the Great Union Party (BBP). Yasar Cihan, the then Trabzon
province party chair of the BBP, Halis Egemen, member of the party?s
central executive board, as well as Erbil Susaman and Osman Alpay,
have been relieved of attending further hearings.
Lawyer Cetin criticised the fact that the court has freed four
suspects from attending court hearings despite the fact that
gendarmerie informant Coskun Igci, Irfan Özkan and Erbil Susaman have
not been questioned yet.
Igci has also given a statement in the Trabzon trial against police
intelligence officers, saying: ?I told them about the murder plans
four months earlier.? He is still to be questioned in Istanbul.
At the hearing yesterday, suspects Yasar Cihan, Halis Egemen, Salih
Hacisalihoglu, Ersin Yolcu, Ahmet Iskender, Mustafa Öztürk and Alper
Esirgemez were cross-examined.