Second Hearing Brings No Clarity

The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court has decided not to open a separate investigation into police intelligence officer Muhittin Zenit, who spoke to suspect Erhan Tuncel hours after the murder of Hrant Dink.

Because the original decision of the Trabzon Governor's Office not to investigate the police officers, including Zenit, was being appealed against by the joint attorneys, and the appeal was being dealt with by the regional administrative court, the Istanbul court did not see the need to open another investigation.

On the other hand, it has decided to write to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate those who published the secret recordings.

"Love it or leave it" 

O.S., the suspected gunman, was brought to the Besiktas Court in a prison van which had a sticker with the ultra-nationalist logo "Love [the country] or leave it" stuck to the front of it. Later, police covered the sticker. The Ministry of Justice has begun an investigation into the sticker.

Yesterday's hearing was attended by the eight detained defendants, O.S., Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Zeynel Abidin Yavuz, Ersin Yolcu, Ahmet Iskender, Tuncay Uzundal and Mustafa Öztürk, as well as five of the 11 undetained defendants: Erbil Susuman, Salih Hacisalihoglu, Osman Alpay, Senol Akduman and Veysel Toprak.

Family and journalists as third-party plaintiffs

Hrant Dink's family members (Rakel Dink, Delal Dink, Haykanus Dink, Zabel Dink, Hosrof Dink and Karabet Paylan), as well as journalists Eser Karakas, Ali Bayramoglu and Etyen Mahcupyan joined the court hearing as third party plaintiffs.

O.S. does "not remember"


Further details of O.S.'s statement have emerged. He often claimed not to know or not to remember events, such as what make the gun was, when and with what bus he came from Trabzon to Istanbul, whether he wore gloves when he was shooting, etc.

Uzundal and Tuncel not cooperative

Defendant Tuncay Uzundal said in his statement, "If I am punished, then Erhan [Tuncel] also needs to be punished. I tried to prevent the murder...When I was sure that Dink was going to be shot, I drove a wedge between Erhan and Yasin [Hayal] [...] I was fighting with both of them and did not trust either."

Police informant Erhan Tuncel had said that he would give the name of police officers at the hearing, but then he refused to do so. It has been decided that the names would be requested from the Police Headquarters Review Committee.

The next hearing of the case is going to be on 11 February 2008, with a monthly monitoring of the detainees' situation. An application wil be made to hold the next hearing in a bigger court room. (EÖ/NZ/AG)