GENERAL CONVICTED FOR DEFAMATION OF ASSASSINATED HRANT DINK
BIAnet
Nov 9 2009
Turkey
Brigadier General Karaduman was sentenced to pay 2,000 Turkish Lira
in compensation for hate speeches against assassinated Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink.
Erol ONDEROÄ~^LU [email protected] Istanbul – BÄ°A News Center09
November 2009, Monday The Bakırköy 4th Court of First Instance in
Istanbul adjudged Brigadier General Dursun Ali Karaduman from the
Giresun Gendarmerie Regional Command on the eastern Black Sea Coast
to pay 2,000 Turkish Lira (approximately â~B¬ 900) in compensation
for damages for mental anguish. Karaduman had targeted assassinated
editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper Hrant Dink in a poem
he read out at a soldier’s funeral. Furthermore, he was quoted as
saying at another soldier’s funeral, "They even condemn it and raise
their voices when a traitor is killed".
The Dink family symbolically set the amount of the compensation to
1 TL. Yet, in order to be able to hear the case the court raised it
of 6,000 TL
"Dink family plans to donate compensation to Nezin Foundation" Lawyer
of the Dink family Deniz Tuna told bianet that the family partially
accepted the amount claimed by the court and said that the family
plans to donate the 2,000 TL decided by the court on 6 November to
Nesin Foundation to support victims of the flood that hit parts of
Istanbul in September this year.
Karaduman allegedly defamed Dink twice after the journalist had been
assassinated on 19 January 2007. The first time he targeted Dink in
a speech Karaduman made at a soldier’s funeral on 9 April 2007. The
second time he mentioned Dink’s name to his disfavour in a poem he
read out at another soldier’s funeral on 20 June 2007.
The court found Karaduman guilty of attacking Dink’s moral integrity
on the grounds of his speech and his poem.
Hate speeches on 2 funerals In his speech in April 2007 Karaduman said,
"…the ones who panned this games and who was nominated for it must
have been informed very well that the country and the nation of the
Turkish Republic is an indivisible whole. Our fight will continue until
there is not a single terrorist left. Today the American Senate, the
French Parliament, the English House of Lords and the EU Parliament
in Brussels have condemned the ones who killed you. They even condemn
it and raise their voices when a traitor is killed. The immortal
heroes who shed holy blood, who made this geography our homeland
and who entrusted it with us; I condemn all the traitors and their
supporters for you here today".
In June Karaduman implemented elements of hate into a poem he read
at the funeral of soldier Kadir Aydın. He complained about the
"world’s indifference" and compared the situation of Aydın, who
"carried a thoroughly original Turkish name" as Karaduman put it,
with journalist Hrant Dink.
A total number of 20 defendants are tried before the 14th High
Criminal Court in the context of the Dink murder., 8 gendarmerie
officials of the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command are prosecuted under
charges of "neglect of duty" because they did not prevent the murder
despite referring information of the Intelligence Office prior to
the assassination.