Suspect Regrets He Killed Hrant Dink

Today was the second hearing in the Hrant Dink murder trial, and the statement of O.S. the suspected gunman, was taken. bianet was told by the joint attorneys that O.S. said: "Yasin Hayal forced me to do this job. I was so scared, I did not know how it happened, I shot Hrant Dink. When I came to my senses, I was at my uncle's house. I could not sleep that night, I feel remorse. If I had known he had family, I would not have shot him."

Three statements taken 

First the defense lawyers asked the suspects questions. The joint attorneys had demanded that all eight detained suspects be brought to court, but only O.S., Tuncay Uzundal and Zeynel Abidin Yavuz's statements were taken. Some of the undetained suspects did not attend.

O.S.: I took marihuana and ecstacy 

According to joint attorney Bülent Akbay, O.S. claimed that Tuncay Uzundal and Yasin Hayal had organised the murder, and that he had tried to prevent it. He further claimed that Yasin Hayal had given him two ecstacy pills to encourage him, and that he smoked marihuana and then took the two pills in the morning before the murder.

Uzundal claimed in his statement that suspect and police informant Erhan Tuncel had contacts to PKK (Kurdish Workers' Pary) leaders and that he suspected the PKK to have committed the murder.

Conspiracy theories to distract 

Fuat Turgut, the controversial lawyer of suspect Yasin Hayal, is himself on trial in another case for threatening behaviour and has publicly supported the song of nationalist singer Ismail Türüt which has recently made the headlines. During the break, Turgut said: "In this murder case we have to think internationally. Think of the murders of people like Uğur Mumcu, Ahmet Taner Kisasli, Necip Hablemitoglu. Would this be Israel's and the USA's first murder?"

No faith in the trial 

Joint attorneys said that the defendants gave "very masterful answers" and that the murder was still shrouded in mysteries. Journalist Etyen Mahcupyan evaluated the different statements made by the suspects, saying, "It does not even matter that there are discrepancies."

Hrant Dink's brother Levent Dink, said, "It was clear from the beginning that the case would be this shallow. I knew they would exploit the structures of the Turkish Penal Code which still need maturing. They are going to get out of it by accusing each other."

Relatives of Hrant Dink's widow Rakel Dink, Sevan and Mihail Yagbasan, who had come from Brussels to attend the hearing, were not allowed into the court room.

In the second part of the hearing, the joint attorneys will question the suspects.

Uras: A parliamentary commission planned 

Ufuk Uras, the Istanbul MP for the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) attended the hearing. He told bianet, "We are going to found a parliamentary commission to investigate the Hrant Dink murder. We will do everything to throw light on this murder. Without doing so, it is impossible to have clean politics and a transparent society in Turkey."

"Trabzon governor is partner in crime"

Referring to the recent emergence of a taped telephone conversation between suspect Erhan Tuncel and police intelligence officer Muhittin Zenit, Uras accused the Trabzon governor, who had decided that the Trabzon police did not need to be questioned, of "protecting partners in crime and of being a partner in the crime": "The Ministry of the Interior is also guilty by not taken this governor off duty. We will not leave off this case until punitive sanctions have been applied to the police officers. Until today, we thought that a crime had been committed despite of the state, that the state had been helpless. In reality, the state, through some of its officers, has taken part in the murder."

Dink family lawyers: Complaint filed about newly emerged recording 

In a statement in front of the court building, Erdal Dogan, one of the Dink family lawyers, said: "Everyone except himself knew that Hrant Dink was going to be murdered. Those who were negligent are being kept out of the investigation. The fact that Muhittin Zenit still spoke to Erhan Tuncel months after he had been transferred [from Trabzon to another city] shows that the relations were still there."

Another Dink family lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, said that the plaintiffs would file a criminal complaint concerning the recorded telephone conversation.

Roth: Do not forget 

Claudia Roth from the German Green Party was first kept away from the court, but later allowed to watch the case. In a statement she said: "Hrant was one of the most pacifist people. Today is the Day of Freedom of Expression. Hrant was killed by Article 301. All together, we must continue the struggle for freedom of expression, which is the most basic building block of democracy. " She added, "Do not forget, because forgetting kills."

In front of the court building, people who "felt like witnesses to the case" had congregated.

Speaking to bianet, Roth said that in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek tomorrow she would reiterate her demand for the abolition of Article 301. She said that, after Dink's funeral, she had been shocked by the Republican People's Party (CHP) chairperson Deniz Baykal's attitude towards Article 301.

Eugene Schoulgin, of the International Writers' Union PEN, was prevented from approaching the court building. She told bianet that "they still have not understood the international dimensions of this case. It is important to create international interest in such a case."

Also present in front of the court were health rights activist Mustafa Sütlas, journalists Ali Bayramoglu, Nadire Mater, Ertugrul Kürkcü and Yavuz Baydar, widow of singer Ahmet Kaya, Gülten Kaya, writer Ümit Firat, and actor Mahir Günsiray.

The Hrant Dink Case Monitoring Committee made a press statement at Besiktas square, near the court. There were around 200 participants, including singer Ferhat Tunc, actor Mehmet Ali Alabora, journalist Cengiz Aktar, Celalettin Can and Nimet Tanrikulu of the 78’ers Turkey Initiative, and writer Ragip Zarakolu. They were wearing pictures of Hrant Dink. After the press statement, they shouted, “We are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenian”, the slogan that had been used on the placards at his funeral. (EÖ/NZ/AG)