Another Officer Admits They Knew Dink Would Be Murdered
In accordance with the investigation into the negligence of Trabzon gendarmerie authorities in Hrant Dink’s murder, Trabzon Criminal Court heard Captain Metin Yıldız’ testimony. He too accused his superior Trabzon Gendermarie Commander Colonel Ali Öz.
Captain Yıldız told in his statement at Bolu Criminal Court on June 9 that “We conveyed the information that Yasin Hayal had been planning a murder to Ali Öz a year before it occurred.”
Cinmen: Öz was the most senior officer among them and he did not take precautions
Ergin Cinmen, one of Dink’s lawyers, who witnessed the disposition together with the lawyer Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, stated that Yıldız expressed words proving that he was aware of the warnings and that this information was conveyed to Ali Öz both directly and while he was in a meeting with other gendarmerie personnel.
Finding these statements “very important”, Cinmen made the following explanation to Bianet: The most senior officer in Trabzon was Öz. Even though the Gendarmerie had known the murder a year before it occurred, it turned up that he did not do anything.”
Yıldız: I told Colonel Öz a year before the murder
By saying that they received the initial information in summer of 2006, Yıldız confirmed the statements that were taken from the other officers who had told that the intelligence received from the gendarmerie informant Coşkun İğci, who was also Hayal’s brother-in-law, was discussed during a meeting of the gendarmerie authorities.
“I told my commander Öz that the staff on duty had informed me that Yasin Hayal who planted a bomb at McDonalds in 2004 was making plans to kill the journalist Hrant Dink who lived in İstanbul. After listening to me, he told me that we would discuss this matter later and then we ended the meeting.”
Öz added that he reminded the subject to Öz again two days later when he was called to his office to present the daily work and then, on January 19, 2007, he watched the murder on TV.
Both the defendants and the witnesses blamed Öz
During their depositions at the 2nd Criminal Court of Peace of Trabzon on March 20, chief master sergeant Okan Şimşek and master sergeant Veysel Şahin told that they had received the information that Dink was going to be murdered from Coşkun İğci and conveyed it to the Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Öz.
Following this, Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace asked on March 20 for the statements to be taken from Ali Öz, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Metin Yıldız, Ali Oğuz Çağlar, Hüsamettin Polat, Gazi Günay, Gökhan Aslan, Hacı Ömer Ünalır, Uğur Erdoğan ve Önder Aras.
Chief Master Sergeant Uğur Erdoğan, who gave his statement in Iğdır, said that he saw the accused petty officers Şimşek and Şahin collecting information about the newspaper Agos and Hrant Dink from the internet, and heard them saying that there really was a Hrant Dink and a newspaper named Agos.
Chief Master Sergeant Aslan, who gave his statement in Bitlis, said that during a conversation with each other a few days after the murder, the accused petty officers had mentioned that they had received the information that Hrant Dink was going to be murdered before the actual murder and that they had conveyed this information to their superiors. (EÖ/EZÖ/TB)