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The 125th hearing of the lawsuit filed against public officials over the assassination of Agos Newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink was held at the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court today (January 22). The trial continued with defendants' statements of defense as to the accusations.
At today's hearing, Deputy Inspector Özkan Mumcu from the Trabzon Provincial Security Directorate Intelligence Branch Office, the then officers of the Intelligence Department Hamdi Egbatan and Tamer Bülent Demirel, Trabzon gendarmerie intelligence officers Veysal Şahin and Yakup Kurtaran from Samsun Security Directorate were heard.
In compliance with the interlocutory judgement given at the previous hearing, arrested defendants Veysal Şahin and Volkan Şahin as well as all other defendants attended the hearing via the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS). Reporters Without Borders (RSF) representative to Turkey Erol Önderoğlu also followed the hearing.
At the beginning of the hearing, Hamza Celepoğlu's attorney Vural Ergül and Presiding Judge Akın Gürlek had an argument. Ergül said that, at the hearing on January 20, he was not allowed to complete his defense and raised a request for recusal. The court board rejected the request.
Ergül also said to Serdar Öztürk, the attorney of another defendant: "You are the member of the organization. I am saying this to your face: You are from the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)."
During the hearing, presiding judge Gürlek frequently interfered with the defenses and asked the defendants to "wrap it up."
'I wrote the report by force'
Arrested defendant Veysal Şahin took the floor first for his statement of defense. Indicating that the information in the intelligence registration form that they filled out and signed after the murder was the information that they had received 6 months prior, Şahin said, "I signed it involuntarily. Our commanders said, 'We cannot surmount it, the organization will get in a difficult position.' It was also what Ali Öz instructed. I gave a misstatement, as my superiors had ordered me to do. I am not authorized to write the intelligence registration form."
Further in his defense, Şahin said that he, together with other defendant Okan Şimşek, met Coşkun İğci and told him that "he should not give information to anyone." Veysal Şahin stated, "We did not threaten him. We met him upon order and instruction. If Yasin Hayal was being followed due to the McDonalds attack, it was not me following him."
Referring to a tip-off indicating that he and Okan Şimşek had met with Yasin Hayal and Ogün Samast before the murder, Veysal Şahin said that it was not true: "I did not have any contact with those persons. I did not engage in an activity of planning the murder. I did not have contact with the İstanbul gendarmerie. I request my release and acquittal."
'I don't even know where intelligence bureau is'
After Veysal Şahin, Volkan Şahin presented his defense. He said that while the indictment referred to him as an officer from the Trabzon gendarmerie intelligence, he had just began duty as staff sergeant at the time, adding that he had not received information about the murder:
"It was my first year at the gendarmerie department. There were also documents, at the department, indicating that I was a public order officer. I am not an intelligence officer and I do not know any personnel on duty there. I do not even know where the intelligence bureau is.
"I do not know Yasin Hayal, Ogün Samast or Coşkun İğci. I cannot understand how my name was involved in the investigation as an intelligence officer. I met Tuncay Uzundal at Karadeniz Technical University. He made me meet Erhan Tuncel. We were talking about students' issues. I know nothing about them, apart from them being students.
"No evidence has been presented as to the allegation that Coşkun İğci gave me intelligence about the murder. This evaluation has been done by the court. I still cannot find out how my name has been involved in this case. I heard the name of Hrant Dink after the murder. I had nothing to do with the FETÖ/PDY [Parallel State Structure]."
'I didn't see the F4 reports'
Taking the floor after Volkan Şahin, Hamdi Egbatan made his defense. Dismissing the charges, he said, "While I was on duty at the department, I did not work in the C2 bureau. I did not see the F4 reports [indicating that Dink would be "killed at all costs"]. I did not use the Bylock program."
He also said that he was not a member of the FETÖ, which is held accountable for the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016. "I am a person loyal to his state, nation and homeland," said Egbatan.
'I was doing my military service at the time'
The statement of Özkan Mumcu was heard afterwards. Mumcu said that while he was working at the Trabzon security directorate, he joined the army to do his mandatory military service six months before the murder. He said that he was doing his military service when Hrant Dink was murdered.
Noting that he served almost 3 years behind bars though he was doing his military service, Mumcu said that the person who made Erhan Tuncel an informant was Muhittin Zenit, an officer working at the same bureau.
"Erhan Tuncel told Muhittin Zenit that Yasin Hayal was preparing to kill Hrant Dink. It was reported and sent to İstanbul with the Intelligence Department, considering its importance," said Mumcu.
Mumcu also stated that department head Engin Dinç was appointed to another post before the murder: "He went to Afyon. We are in the same situation with him. I cannot understand how the prosecutor's opinion as to the accusations demands his acquittal, while filing charges against me."
'Everything happened in 10-15 minutes'
As for defendant Yakup Kurtaran, he said the following about the picture of Ogün Samast being taken at the Samsun Security Directorate in front of the Turkish flag: "I do not have an intention to take a picture with the Turkish flag. I do not know how it was done."
Kurtaran said, "When Samast opened the flag, I noticed a tear on the flag near me. I was actually going to take it from him, but I did not do it, thinking that it would have been torn if he had pulled it as well. I did not give a message with the photo. The hitman was, all of a sudden, told to take out the flag. The photo was taken. All these happened in 10-15 minutes. I did not have a will in this. How was this flag not taken during the search at the garage? I leave it to your judgement. I did not do something illegal. I did not use Bylock. Besides, even if I had done it, it would be unlawful evidence."
House arrest for Ali Öz, release for Şahin
The court board pronounced its interim ruling after the statements of defense. Volkan Şahin, who was arrested on January 6, 2021, has been released, considering the current state of evidence and the fact that the statements of witnesses and the defendant overlap.
The court board has also ruled that defendant Ali Öz, the then Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Commander, shall be arrested, considering the change in the state of evidence against him. Taking his age into account, the court board has placed Ali Öz under house arrest.
The house arrest of Ali Öz was lifted at a hearing a few weeks ago. With this recent ruling, he has been sentenced to house arrest for the third time as part of the trial over journalist Hrant Dink's murder.
The next hearing of the case is on January 27.
Hrant Dink murder caseIn 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. |
(HA/SD)
