Hrant Dink murder case | Assets of 12 fugitive defendants to be seized

Trial of public official in the Hrant Dink murder case

Announcing its ruling on March 26, 2021, the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court separated the files of 13 people, acquitted 37 people and convicted 27 people. The charges against Şeref Ateş were dropped as he has lost his life during the course of the trial

37 people acquitted

Adem Sarıgöl, Adnan Acar, Atilla Güçlüoğlu, Muhammer Ay, Metehan Kadir Yıldırım, Niyazi Malkoç, Cevat Eser, Rahmi Özer, Resul Kütükoğlu, Tevfik Cantürk, Ünsal Gürel, Ecevit Emir, Emre Cingöz, Hacı Şefik Şimşek, Eyüp Temel Ahmet Çetiner, Birol Ustaoğlu, Sabri Uzun, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Ali Poyraz, Mikdat Özbek, Hamdi Egbatan, Mustafa Küçük, Ergün Yorulmaz, Musa Yıldırım, Hacı Ömer Ünalır, Reşat Altay, Ali Barış Sevindik, Murat Bayrak, Tamer Bülent Demirel, Yusuf Bozca, Yüksel Avan, Hamza Celepoğlu, Engin Dinç, Ercan Demir, Ahmet İlhan Güler, Muhittin Zenit.

The files of 13 people separated

Fethullah Gülen, Zekeriya Öz, Ekrem Dumanlı, Metin Canbay, Yunus Yazar, Faruk Mercan, Adem Yavuz Arslan, Halil İbrahim Koca, Yılmaz Angın, Mehmet Akif Yılmaz, Ömer Faruk Kartın, Coşgun Çakar and Serkan Şahan.

26 people sentenced to prison

• Ercan Gün has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Abdullah Dinç has been sentenced to 6 years, 3 months in prison on charge of "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Ahmet Faruk Aydoğdu has been sentenced to 6 years, 3 months in prison on charge of "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Hasan Durmuşoğlu has been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "negligent act" and to 3 years, 9 months in prison for "destroying official document" while other charges dropped due to violation of statutory limitations
• Bekir Yokuş has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for "aiding the act of killing"
• Önder Araz has been sentenced to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document"
• Şükrü Yıldız has been sentenced to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "knowingly and willingly aiding the organization without being a part of its hierarchical structure" while other charges dropped due to violation of statutory limitations
• Metin Balta has been sentenced to 6 years, 8 months in prison on charge of "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Mehmet Uçar has been sentenced to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document" while acquitted of other charges
• Mehmet Ali Özkılıç has been sentenced to 7 years, 6 months in prison for "being the member of an armed terrorist organization" and to 1 year, 18 months in prison for "favoring the criminal"
• Osman Gülbel has been sentenced to 16 years, 8 months in prison on charge of "deliberate killing with negligent act"
• Yakup Kurtaran has been sentenced to 7 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Yavuz Karakaya has been sentenced to life imprisonment on charge of "attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order" and to 12 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "killing by using another person"
• Mehmet Ayhan has been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "deliberate killing with negligent act" and to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document"
• Onur Kaya has been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months in prison for "deliberate killing with negligent act" and to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document"
• Faruk Sarı has been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "deliberate killing with negligent act" and to 3 years, 9 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document"
• Muharrem Demirkale has been sentenced to life imprisonment for "killing by using another person" and to life imprisonment on charge of "attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order"
• Okan Şimşek has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on charge of "killing by using another person" and to 3 years, 4 months in prison on charge of "forgery of official documents"
• Veysal Şahin has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on charge of "killing by using another person" and to 3 years, 4 months in prison on charge of "forgery of official documents"
• Gazi Günay has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on charge of "killing by using another person" and to 3 years, 4 months in prison on charge of "forgery of official documents"
• Özkan Mumcu has been sentenced to 7 years in prison on charge of "being the member of an armed terrorist organization"
• Ali Fuat Yılmazer has been sentenced to aggravated life sentence for "killing by using another person" and 4 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "destroying official document"
• Ramazan Akyürek has been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on charge of "killing by using another person", to 5 years, 7 months, 15 days in prison on charge of "destroying official document" and to 7 years, 6 months in prison for "forgery of official documents"
• Metin Yıldız has been sentenced to 3 years, 4 months in prison on charge of "forgery of official documents"
• Aliz Öz has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on charge of "killing by using another person" and to 3 years, 4 months in prison on charge of "forgery of official documents"
• Volkan Şahin has been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "deliberate killing with negligent act".

Hrant Dink murder case

In the lawsuit filed into the killing of Hrant Dink, the specially authorized 14th Heavy Penal Court handed down its ruling on 19 defendants on January 17, 2012. Arrested defendant Yasin Hayal was sentenced to aggravated life sentence on charge of "incitement to premeditated murder", 3 months in prison for threatining writer Orhan Pamuk and 1 year in prison for "possession of unregistered arm." He was acquitted of "leading an armed terrorist organization."

While the court ruled that Erhan Tuncel, one of the arrested defendants, should be sentenced to 10 years, 6 months in prison and ruled for his release, it sentenced Ersin Yolcu to 12 years, 6 months, Ahmet İskender to 13 years, 4 months and Salih Hacısalihoğlu to 2 months, 15 days in prison. All defendants were acquitted of "membership in an armed terrorist organization."

The 9th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation reversed the verdict of the local court on "organization" charges and ruled that the defendants should be retried for being the members of "an organization established to commit crimes", not being the members of "an armed terrorist organization."

Upholding the conviction of Yasin Hayal on charges of "incitement to deliberate murder" and "threatening Orhan Pamuk", the Court of Cassation reversed the acquittal of Yasin Hayal on charges of "establishing and leading an armed terrorist organization", concluding that he should be convicted of "establishing and leading a criminal organization." While the Court of Cassation upheld the conviction of Erhan Tuncel on charge of "producing explosive substance", it reversed his acquittal of "incitement to willful murder" on the grounds that he should be convicted for having aided the Hrant Dink murder.

Case file at the 14th Heavy Penal Court, again

Following the Court of Cassation verdict, the retrial began at the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court. After six hearings were held at this court, the file was sent to the İstanbul 5th Heavy Penal Court as the heavy penal courts specially authorized as per the Article 10 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) were abolished.

Accepting the indictment against public officials, the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court sent the case file to the İstanbul 5th Heavy Penal Court so that it would be merged with the main trial of eight defendants, including Ogün Samast, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, the verdicts of whom had been reversed.

The board of the İstanbul 5th Heavy Penal Court returned the case file to the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court on the grounds that "consent was not requested in the ruling for merging the case files, the court was not authorized to hear terror crimes, the trial was at a further stage in the main case and there was no common defendant between the ones put on trial in this case and the public officials to be put on trial in the new case."

The 5th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, who examined the files to resolve the dispute between the courts, merged the two files and ruled that the cases should be heard by the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court.

The İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled that the new trial of 50 defendants including gendarmerie officials should be merged with the main trial of 35 defendants including Ogün Samast, Erhan Tuncel and former security directors Ramazan Akyürek, Ali Fuat Yılmazer and Coşgun Çakır.

New indictment

While the trial was ongoing, the prosecutor conducting the investigation lodged a new indictment and demanded aggravated life sentence on charge of "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order" for 51 defendants including Fetullah Gülen, former prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, Editor-in-Chief of the closed Zaman newspaper Ekrem Dumanlu, journalists Adem Yavuz Arslan, Ercan Gün and dismissed Brigadier General Hamza Celepoğlu, the then Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Ali Öz, Trabzon Gendarmerie Intelligence Branch Director Metin Yıldız and İstanbul Gendarmerie Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Muharrem Demirkale. The indictment also demanded that 40 defendants including Öz and gendarmerie officers be sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on charge of "participating in the murder."

Prison sentence for defendants in the main trial

At the hearing on June 13, 2019, the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled that the case files of nine main defendants including Ogün Samast and Yasin Hayal should be separated from the others.

Handing down its judgement on July 17, 2019, the court ruled that Erhan Tuncel should be sentenced to 99 years, 6 months in total on charges of "attempted murder with premeditation and by using a bomb, damage to property, being a member of a criminal organization and aiding a wilful murder", Yasin Hayal to 7 years, 6 months in prison for "establishing and leadign an armed criminal organization" and Ogün Samast to 2 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "being a member of an armed criminal organization."

The court also sentenced Zeynel Abidin Yavuz to 14 years, 22 days, Tuncay Uzundal to 16 years, 10 months, 15 days and Ahmet İskender and Ersin Yolcu to 1 year, 10 months, 15 days in prison each on similar charges. Defendants Salih Hacısalihoğlu and Osman Hayal were acquitted by the court.