TURKEY: DINK MURDER TRIAL A TEST FOR JUDICIARY
Reuters AlertNet, UK
Human Rights Watch
HRW news
June 29 2007
(New York, June 29, 2007) The Turkish judiciary must hold accountable
any security forces found responsible for negligence or collusion
in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Human
Rights Watch said today. Evidence that will be heard in the trial,
which starts on July 2, may raise serious questions about possible
involvement of the security forces in the killing. "Hrant Dink’s murder
trial is a critical test of the Turkish judiciary’s independence,"
said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. "We will be closely watching how the court handles any evidence
that may implicate the security forces."
Dink was a courageous champion of open debate, dialogue and
cooperation between all communities in Turkey, and a man committed
to democratization and human rights in Turkey. He was gunned down
outside his office in Istanbul on January 19. Dink’s killing was
apparently politically and ethnically motivated; he was identified
by his murderers as an Armenian who had been convicted in court for
"insulting Turkishness."
Eighteen defendants named in the April 20 indictment will stand trial
for Dink’s killing. Two of the defendants are accused of being leaders
of an armed gang that allegedly planned the murder. The gunman is
a 17-year-old youth allegedly appointed by the gang to carry out
the killing.
Dink had been receiving death threats for some time before his murder
and had reported these threats to the local prosecutor in Istanbul.
His reports apparently went unheeded. In the 18 months preceding
his murder, officials in Istanbul and Trabzon also reportedly failed
to act on numerous police intelligence reports revealing a plan to
murder Dink.
In fact, the indictment alleges that one of the three main defendants
had operated as a police informer, and the police had repeatedly been
informed that another defendant was planning to kill Dink. Since
the murder, several senior public officials have been removed from
office, including the governor of Trabzon and the head of the city’s
police, who were removed on the grounds of negligence and failures
of duty. The authorities should also investigate a number of others,
including members of the gendarmerie in Trabzon, although criminal
investigation of public officials in Turkey remains a cumbersome
process, relying on a very old law.
"The Turkish authorities failed to protect Hrant Dink, despite evidence
that his life was at risk," said Cartner. "They must now ensure
that those responsible are held to account and, where appropriate,
prosecuted."
Human Rights Watch is also deeply concerned by the statements and
conduct of some Turkish officials that point to possible bias and
raise questions about their ability to act impartially in the Dink
case. Before any investigation could be conducted, Celalettin Cerrah,
the head of the Istanbul Police stated publicly that there was no
political dimension to Dink’s killing, that the suspected gunman
had no links to political organizations, and that the gunman was
motivated only by nationalist sentiment. The Ministry of Interior
inspectorate recommended that he receive an official condemnation
for this statement. Lawyers for Hrant Dink’s family have appealed a
decision not to pursue a criminal investigation into Cerrah’s conduct
and statements.
Moreover, Turkish television broadcast footage it had obtained of
several police and gendarmerie officers posing for photographs with
the murder suspect directly after his apprehension in the Black Sea
city of Samsun on January 21. The footage reveals the suspect holding
up a Turkish flag and surrounded by officers in the Samsun Security
Directorate, who apparently considered this a souvenir. Eight members
of the police and gendarmerie were suspended from duty pending an
investigation.
"In this climate of growing intolerance and violence against minority
groups, the Turkish authorities must fully investigate Dink’s murder
and bring all perpetrators to justice," said Cartner. "Failure to
ensure justice in this case would send a dangerous message. Violent
attacks on minority groups or on those expressing critical and
dissenting views must not be tolerated."
Background: Prosecutions against Dink and the newpaper Agos
In the 18 months prior to his murder, Hrant Dink had been the
subject of three prosecutions for speech-related offenses. For
an article in which he discussed Armenian identity, Dink last
July received a six-month suspended sentence under Article 301,
a provision of the Turkish penal code that criminalizes "publicly
insulting Turkishness." Dink was prosecuted again in September under
the same article for using the term "genocide" in a statement made
to the Reuters news agency to describe the massacres of Armenians in
Anatolia at the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Agos (Furrow), the bilingual Turkish and Armenian-language newspaper
that Dink edited until his death, continues to be targeted on charges
of speech-related offenses. Arat Dink, Hrant Dink’s son and now editor
of Agos, and Serkis Saropyan, owner of the newspaper, are still on
trial for "insulting Turkishness" as the publishers of Hrant Dink’s
remarks and for a petition organized by Agos entitled, "A signature
against Article 301." Two Agos journalists, Aydýn Engin and Karin
Karakaþlý, are also on trial under the same article. In the aftermath
of Hrant Dink’s murder, prosecutions under Article 301 continue.
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the Turkish government
to abolish Article 301 and other laws that inhibit freedom of speech.
They should also drop all charges against journalists, writers and
editors who face prosecution for their peaceful expression.
–Boundary_(ID_PslZ1yNy1xwSlsbtuFELQg )–