Court Insists on Defendants' Phone Records

The trial regarding the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was continued on Friday (29 July). This was the 19^th hearing of the case heard before the Beşiktaş (Istanbul) High Criminal Court. Alleged instigators and detained defendants Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal appeared at court. The trial includes a total of 19 defendants.

Dink, founder of the Agos newspaper, was gunned down in front of his office on 19 January 2007.

German Green Party Co-Chair Claudia Roth was among the trial observers as well as Olivier Guillaud, member of the Steering Board of the Paris Bar Association, and Alexandre Kuyumcuyan as the President of the Association of French-Armenian Lawyers and Jurists. However, since the hearing started with a delay of two hours at 12.00 noon, Roth had to leave early in order to catch her plane.

"Criminal discretion should be checked"

On 25 July, triggerman Ogün Samast was sentenced to imprisonment of 22 years and ten months by the Istanbul 2^nd Juvenile High Criminal Court for the killing of Dink. During the Friday session, obvious tension could be observed between Samast and alleged instigators Hayal and Tuncel.

Defendant Hayal claimed in the course of the hearing that "visitors from Pelitli (Trabzon)" who came to see him in prison had threatened and beaten him. As in the previous hearing, Hayal reiterated that this could be proven by camera records. He requested to watch the correspondent footage at court.

The defence lawyers of Erhan Tuncel on the other hand said that they checked the visitors records that revealed that Hayal did not have any visitor throughout the past six months. Thereupon, Hayal jumped to his feet and shouted, "You will listen to me! Shut up!" The judge managed to calm down the situation by telling defendant Hayal to be quiet; otherwise he would have been expelled from the courtroom.

Hayal's defence lawyers requested to examine their client at the Mental Health Hospital in Bakırköy (Istanbul) in order to check whether Hayal was holding criminal discretion. Hayal stated thereupon, "I am fine. I apologize for raising my voice".

Chek of Hayal's mental health

The joint attorneys of the Dink family showed the court board and the defendants footage recorded before the murder. Lawyer Fethiye Çetin criticized that the trial would take a more proper way once the telephone records of the defendants would have been sent by the Telecommunication Communication Presidency (TİB). Otherwise, this would obstruct a fair trial, Çetin indicated.

She continued that also the fact that the camera hard disk of the Akbank branch turned out to be empty was not logic. The hard disk of the bank located at the scene of crime was sent to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for an examination. She claimed that the hard disk of security cameras that are recording and being erased continuously could not be completely empty. Lawyer Çetin requested the court check whether the hard disk sent to TÜBITAK really were the hard disk of the Akbank cameras.

Olivier Guillaud and Alexandre Kuyumcuyan commented in an intermission that this was "an impressive defence and an interesting trial".

The court board decided to have defendant Hayal examined by forensic medical experts of the Public Prosecution in Tekirdağ (west of Istanbul) in order to check his mental health and to determine whether Hayal should be taken under observation. The court is expecting a referring report.

Additionally, the court decreed to reject the appeal of TİB on delivering the requested information on the phone records and to forward a correspondent writing to the superior 9^th High Criminal Court. The court board furthermore decided to contact the purchase unit of Akbank in order to find out whether the hard disk examined by TÜBİTAK was the same. Moreover, the court is going to require the prison camera records of the day Hayal was allegedly attacked. The court board dismissed requests for the defendants' release.

The next hearing was set for 19 September. (IC/ÖÖ/ŞA/VK)