Court Finally Hears Defendant's Threats

At the tenth hearing of the Dink murder trial at Istanbul's 14th Heavy Penal Court yesterday (6 July), the court warned the Istanbul police, the Ankara Telecommunications Directorate, the Police General Directorate and the Trabzon police to send the information requested by the joint attorneys. The court warned, "Send the information, or there will be legal proceedings against those responsible."

The court decided to invite witness statements of seven people, and to force those who had been called before to come to court.

The judges further declined the demand for release of five detained defendants Ogün Samast, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet İskender.

Threat by Samast

Ogün Samast, the young man accused of fatally shooting journalist Hrant Dink on 19 January 2007, threatened the Dink family and joint attorneys by saying "Only five more years...", implying that he would then be released.

Lawyers Kezban Hatemi, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Şiar Rişvanoğlu and Bahri Bayram Belen told head judge Erkan Canak that they would not stand for any more insults and that they would not stand by as the order of the court was being disrupted. They filed a criminal complaint against Samast for the threat.

Making a statement outside of court, lawyer Belen said in connection to the threat, "Whoever has made him believe that he only has five more years, has threatened the Dink family. Until today we waited for the head judge to act, but when the court room turned into a theatre stage, we had to intervene."

Belen pointed out that defendant Tuncel, a gendarmerie informant, answered the questions of the joint attorneys for the first time yesterday: "Tuncel says that he shared all the intelligence he had. Either he is lying, or the gendarmerie did not do their duty on that day. Today we got a clearer picture."

Secret witness and murder weapon

The eleventh hearing will take place on 12 October. An unidentified witness will be heard, and it was demanded that the necessary technical preparations be made.

Furthermore, the gun used to kill Hrant Dink will be brought to court.

Lack of cooperation

The court decided to again ask the Police General Directorate to send a transcript of a conference entitled "Missionary Activities in Turkey", organised by Ergenekon detained defendant Sevgi Erenerol. Should the directorate not comply, the court will initiate legal proceedings.

Joint attorneys had also complained about Ramazan Akyürek, head of the Police Intelligence Unit, and his unit, for not sending the documents and reports relating to the time prior to the murder. The court decided to request the relevant documents again.

Another Case of "Good Boys"

The trial also brought an echo of the Şemdinli trial, before which the then General Staff Yaşar Büyükanit had said about one of the gendarmerie officers accused of bombing a bookshop, "He is a good guy."

In this case, defendant Yasin Hayal was described as a "good guy" by the Trabzon gendarmerie, according to the statement of Veysel Şahin, himself detained in Malatya prison but called as a witness.

Şahin, who said that he himself sometimes worked as an "intelligence officer" with the Trabzon gendarmerie said that he had seen Hayal there once and had been told, "He is a good guy, he loves his country and nation." (EÖ/AG)