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The 2nd Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice (appeals court) has announced its decision about the ruling given by the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court in the Hrant Dink murder case, where public officials stood trial and 37 people were acquitted and 26 were given prison sentences.
The court rejected the Dink Family's appeal against 33 defendant's' acquittal of wilful killing, premeditated killing and wilful killing by negligent behavior. (Abdullah Dinç, Adnan Acar, Ahmet Faruk Aydoğdu, Ahmet İlhan Güler, Ali Barış Sevindik, Cevat Eser, Ecevit Emir, Emre Cingöz, Engin Dinç, Ercan Demir, Ergün Yorulmaz, Eyup Temel, Hacı Şefik Şimşek, Hamza Celepoğlu, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Mehmet Uçar, Metehan Kadir Yıldırım, Metin Yıldız, Mikdat Özbek, Muhittin Zenit, Musa Yıldırım, Mustafa Küçük, Niyazi Malkoç, Önder Araz, Özkan Mumcu, Rahmi Özer, Resül Kütükoğlu, Reşat Altay, Tamer Bülent Demirel, Tevfik Cantürk, Ünsal Gürel and Yusuf Bozca)
The court did not consider the reasons put forward by the Dink family appropriate and rejected the appeal on the merits. The court did not give a judgment about the Dink family's appeal regarding two other defendants, Sabri Uzun and Celalettin Cerrah.
The Dink family had demanded several defendants who were acquitted be sentenced for "wilful killing" and "wilful killing by negligent behavior."
Defendants' appeals
The court also rejected the requests of Ercan Demir, Birol Ustaoğlu, Eyüp Temel and Mustafa Küçük for their acquittal of "being a member of an illegal organization" and "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order" on the merits.
It rejected the appeal filed by Ali Poyraz, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Mehmet Uçar and Ramazan Akyürek for the dismissal of the case in terms of "being a member of an illegal organization."
The dismissal of the case against Ahmet İlhan Güler, Ali Poyraz, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Engin Dinç, Mehmet Uçar, Muhittin Zenit, Ramazan Akyürek, Sabri Uzun ve Şükrü Özyıldız for "abuse of office" and "attempting to influence an expert witness" was in compliance with the law and procedures, the court concluded.
Retrials
The arrest of Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ercan Gün, Gazi Günay, Hasan Durmuşoğlu, Muharrem Demirkale, Okan Şimşek, Osman Gülbel, Özkan Mumcu, Ramazan Akyürek, Veysel Şahin and Yavuz Karakaya will continue, according to the court ruling.
Some defendants in the criminal case will be retried, the appeals court ruled: Abdullah Dinç and Ömer Faruk Aydoğdu for "being a member of an armed terrorist organization," Mehmet Ali Özkılınç for "favoring a criminal," Faruk Sarı, Hasan Durmuşoğlu, Mehmet Ayhan, Mehmet Uçar, Onur Karakaya and Ali Fuat Yılmazer for "corrupting, destroying or concealing an official document," and Ramazan Akyürek for "a public official's forgery of official documents" and "corrupting, destroying or concealing an official document."
The Dink family will now file an appeal with the Court of Cassation, the country's top appeals court.
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.
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