NEW INVESTIGATION IN MURDER CASE OF JOURNALIST DINK
BIAnet.org
orities/121309-new-investigation-in-murder-case-of -journalist-dink
April 14 2010
Turkey
Due to a decision taken by the Istanbul Governorship Administrative
Board, a new investigation can be launched related to the murder case
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink into five former officials
of the Istanbul Police Directorate who were on duty at the time.
Erol ONDEROÄ~^LU [email protected] Istanbul – BÄ°A News Center14 April
2010, Wednesday The Istanbul Governorship Provincial Administration
Board issued permission to an investigation regarding the assassination
of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink into alleged flaws and
neglect of five former officials of the Istanbul Police Directorate,
as it was suggested in a preliminary report. The decision came more
than three years after the murder of then chief editor of the Armenian
Agos newspaper Dink on 19 January 2007 in Istanbul. The people under
investigation are former Police Chief Ä°brahim Pala, Chief Inspectors
Volkan Altınbulak and Ä°brahim Å~^evki Eldivan and police officers
Bahadır Tekin and Ozcan Ozkan.
The preliminary investigation had also included former Provincial
Deputy Chief of Police and current Governor of Osmaniye (southern
Turkey) Celalettin Cerrah, former deputy Å~^ammaz DemirtaÅ~_, former
Intelligence Branch Manager Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler and former Deputy Branch
Manager Bulent Köksal. However, the board did not issue permission
to include these four people into the new investigation as well.
Cerrah was not able to follow up everything…
Governor Cerrah was excluded from the investigation for the following
reasons: "He did not have the possibility to follow the entire
procedures closely because of the intensity of his duty considering
the difficulty of execution and since he was following the complex
and various services in the city of Istanbul. He did not neglect his
duties, make any mistake or conducted unlawful actions related to
the subject of the investigation.".
DemirtaÅ~_’s duty: "coordination of services"…
The decision for the new investigation was taken on 12 March 2010 and
approved by Oznur Bolat, President of the Provincial Administration
Board, on 2 April. Istanbul Deputy Chief of Police of the time and
current Chief of Police in Rize, a city on the eastern Black Sea coast,
was excluded from the investigation as well:
"It is impossible to work at the level of following the entire details
and office works in all the branches. It was his duty to coordinate
other units with the Intelligence Branch Directorate and to brief
the Provincial Chief of Police. He was furthermore responsible for
Financial, Narcotics and Organized Crime Branches".
"They pretended to observe Hayal" The decision also mentions Yasin
Hayal, one of the prime suspects in the Dink case as the "abetter" to
the murder. It had previously been put on record that police officers
Bahadır Tekin and Ozcan Ozkan had been sent from the Intelligence
Branch of the Trabzon Police Directorate on 17 February 2006 to take
considerable measures against Hayal. The current decision states though
that they did not go to the address in Umraniye (Istanbul’s Anatolian
side) as given in the according notification after the murder, but that
"they kept a false record pretending that they went there".
The decision claims that the inspectors appointed both police officers
for an observation of a person in Fatih (European side of Istanbul)
on the same day, thus they could not take care of two assignments in
one day.
Inspector Pala and Chief Inspectors Altunbulak and Eldivan are included
into the investigation because they did not take any precautions in
order to protect Dink despite notifications regarding the preparation
of voice records of Hayal related to Dink.
However, the referring officials are expected to file an appeal
against the decision of the investigation. In that case the file
would be transferred to the Administrative Court. EO/VK)