Appeals Court Quashes Dink Verdict

The Court of Appeals has quashed a verdict deferring a 6 months jail sentence for Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Armenian Turkish “Agos” newspaper convicted originally for “insulting Turkish identity”.

The 9th Department of the Appeals Court on Wednesday cited “procedural deficiencies” in the original sentence as reason to overrule the verdict, pointing out that Dink’s remarks “The poisoned blood that will spill from Turks will be replaced by noble blood of the Armenians who will create Armenia” constituted the offence of “insulting Turkish identity”.

The decision said Dink’s remarks did not fall under the scope of the freedom of expression as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights and disagreed with the Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor’s previous evaluation that a local court verdict against Dink should be overruled on grounds that the physical and moral conditions of an offence had not taken place.

The court also found a procedural flaw in the Sisli 2nd Court of First Instance trial of Dink where lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz and his colleagues were not accepted by the court as complainants as they were not directly affected by the offence. It also cited these individuals being paid representation fees as part of its decision to overrule the verdict.

Following this decision the case file is to be submitted to the Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor’s office. If the Chief Prosecutor’s Office does not appeal against the decision, the case will be re-sent to a local court where Dink is to be retried. If the decision is appealed, the case file will then be submitted for a decision to the General Commission of the Council of State. (EO/II/YE)