Identified Suspect Osman Hayal Not Detained

In the latest hearing of the trial concerned with the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court released two of the five detained defendants. Dink, then chief editor of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was shot in front of the office of the Armenian Agos newspaper on 19 January 2007.

The court decided to keep defendants Erhan Tuncel, Ogün Samast and Yasin Hayal in detention, while Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet İskender were released from detention pending trial.

Request to hear former head of Intelligence Department dismissed

In the hearing on 10 May, a secret witness stated that suspect Osman Hayal, brother of defendant Yasin Hayal, was at the scene of the crime as well when Dink was shot. Despite this statement and a request of the Dink family lawyers to detain Osman Hayal, the court decided to release him.

Furthermore, the court decided not to hear former head of the Police Intelligence Department Sabri Uzun as it had been demanded by the joint lawyers of the Dink family. The court dismissed the claim, saying that Uzun's statement was not going to bring new insights for the cases file.

The joint attorneys of the Dink family had previously requested the Public Prosecutor to file a lawsuit with the Istanbul Governor, Muammer Güler, the former Istanbul Regional Head of the National Intelligence Agency (MIT), Özel Yılmaz, and the former Deputy Governor of Istanbul, Ergün Güngör. The court decreed that the criminal complaints should be filed by the lawyers instead.

Unexpected witness - JİTEM member

As far as the unexpected statement of witness Erhan Özen is concerned, the court decided to launch an investigation. Özen was brought to the hearing from the Amasya Prison (northern Anatolia), where he is currently detained for another criminal offence. He said, "I was taking money from the Istanbul Gendarmerie Central Command and I was working for JİTEM at the time". The Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counterterrorism Centre (JİTEM) is an unofficial wing of the Turkish Gendarmerie. The court decided to contact the Istanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Central Command in order to confirm whether Özen told the truth and whether he received any payments.

Camera records will be investigated

Moreover, the court decreed to send the hard disc with the camera records from the Akbank branch to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). The disc supposedly contains footage of the area around the office of Agos newspaper from the day of the murder and was confiscated by the police right after the incident. The court addresses TÜBİTAK to find out whether the footage was deleted and if yes with which program, how and when. And in case the records were erased, the court wants to know whether it is possible to restore the data. (SP/VK)