State Remains Untouched in Dink Murder Case

In the 12^th hearing of the Hrant Dink murder case at the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court, the joint attorneys of the Dink family demanded to investigate the "Cage Operation Action Plan" regarding claims that the plan targeted minorities. The plan was supposedly found at the work place of Levent Bektaş in March 2009, the referring indictment is in progress.

The document, saved on a DVD, contains "classified" paragraphs. The paragraph with the heading "Situation" was quoted as follows: "After the operations related to Priest Santoro, the Malatya Zirve Publishing House and Hrant DINK, the public opinion was shaped in a way that reactionary non-Muslim groups living in Turkey were being targeted. However, AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party], supported by the opposing media, will spread intense propaganda that the mentioned incidents were organized by ERGENEKON".

Trial to be continued on 10 May

At the end of the 12^th hearing on 8 February the court decided to keep defendants Ogün Samast, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet İskender in detention because of the "risk of flight, since the factual criteria showing highly possible crime suspicion is still valid in the existing file and because of insufficient protection precautions". The next hearing is scheduled for 10 May.

In the course of the hearing joint attorney Fethiye Çetin presented numerous requests in a writing of 18 pages comprising eight clauses. The court decided to leave the evaluation of the requests to the prosecution.

Statements of Akyürek, Zenit and intelligence officers will not be taken

The court declined the request made by the joint attorneys as well as alleged instigator defendant Erhan Tuncel to take the statements of intelligence officers in charge, in particular that of Head of Intelligence Department Ramazan Akyürek and Muhettin Zenit.

Insisting on TİB records

The court reiterated the request made to the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) regarding the acquisition of a full list of telephone conversations and SMS from the morning of 19 January 2007 until after the murder.

Three witnesses were demanded to become defendants

Two weeks after the murder of Dink, witnesses Turan Meral, Orhan Özbaş and Kaan Gerçek had testified at the police that they drove around Istanbul with murderer suspect Ogün Samast. He had allegedly shown them his weapon and said "I came to kill somebody".  The witnesses had furthermore recalled a phone call with Samast on the day of the murder when he said "I killed that person, I will go now". They claimed that they had been too afraid to go to the police.

All three witnesses were heard again in the 12^th hearing. This time though they stated Samast just wanted to show off and that they did not take him seriously. Two of the witnesses retracted the statement that they saw the weapon.

The joint attorneys had reason to assume these persons as part of an organized structure and requested to file a complaint with them on the grounds of "false testimony". However, the court informed the lawyers that they could file the complaint themselves at the prosecution.

A report from the Intelligence Office Presidency sent to the court on 25 September 2009 revealed information about the people who met Samast at the Istanbul Bus Terminal when he arrived.

The court is going to wait for a reply from TİB concerning telephone and SMS communications between Özbaş and Meral. A writing will be sent to the Şişli Mayor's Office regarding documents and the license of an internet café in Şafak Street used by Samast. Moreover, the Istanbul Police will be asked once again what was being done at a certain office at the time of the murder.

Defendants Erhan Sevil and Mehmet Ali Temelocak will be taken to the coming hearing under compulsion. (EÖ/VK)