Seventh Hearing Of Dink’s Murder Case On October 13

Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court will continue trying the murder case of Hrant Dink, slained Armenian journalist and owner of biweekly Agos, an Armenian/Turkish newspaper. Hrant Dink was murdered  in front of the building where his newspaper is located on January 19, 2007.

In the seventh hearing of the trial, which will be held on October 13 (Monday), it is expected that Ogün Samast, charged with murdering Hrant Dink, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, accused of instigating the murder, and Zeynel Abidin Yavuz, Ersin Yolcu, Ahmet İskender, Tuncay Uzundal and Mustafa Öztürk will be at the hearing.

We will gather at Beşiktaş for Hrant

The group which calls itself “Hrant’s Friends” will be at Beşiktaş Square as they have been at every hearing so far. They have the the following messagel to the public:

“We, the victims and witnesses of the Hrant Dink case, do not want to be barred by the statue of limitations again, live with the fear of getting killed again and shed tears after the lost ones again. We will go after our case. Again and at the same place.”

“We will again be at Beşiktaş Square for Hrant, for Justice at 9:30 on October 13.”

The court did not want to combine the two trials

In spite of the constant demands by Dink’s lawyers, the court had refused, in the last hearing on July 7,  to combine the Trabzon Gendarmerie case being held in Trabzon with the Dink’s murder case being held in Istanbul.

Having decided to contine keeping the eight accused aprehended, the court had heard the testimony of Coşkun İğci, a former gendarmerie informant and ex-husband of Yasin Hayal’s aunt, in the previous hearing.

İğci had said “I did my duty as a citizen and tried to prevent Hayal from carrying out the murder. Once I realized I could not prevent him anymore, I informed the gendarmerie about Hayal’s plans. I was able to delay the murder for one or one a half months, up until October 2006, by telling Hayal that I was going to buy the gun. I did not see Hayal after this.”

İğci had repeated the same testimony that he had given during the Trabzon trial and said that among the accused, he had only known Ahmet İskender. To the question how many times he had met with the gendarmerie officers, his answer was “I have known them since 2004, and I had met with them five or six times after the intelligence reports regarding Yasin Hayal.”

Hakkı Bahadır Cihan, son of provincial chairperson of the Great Unity Party (BBP) Yaşar Cihan, who was heard as a witness, had denied the allehgation that the key of the “Alperen Ocakları” (Hero-Dervish Hearths) was at Erhan Tuncel.

In the afternoon part of the trial, the court heard the testimonies of Ogün Samast’s relatives Yaşar Samast and Aslan Samast, Ahmet Emin Özmete, who saw Ogün Samast running after the murder, Agos employee İnan Murat and Agos advertisement section employee Kristin Dellaloğlu.

Agos employees Murat and Dellaloğlu identified Ogün Samast as the person who visited the newspaper by introducing himself as a student in Ankara University and Özmete confirmed that he was the one running on Şafak Street right next to the Agos building after the murder.

In the meantime, Tuncel rejected the report that claimed that his relation with the police was ended on November 17, 2006, asserting that this report was prepared to clear the police officers of the responsibility. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)