It has been more than a year now that journalist Hrant Dink, editor of the weekly Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, was gunned down and killed in front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.
The investigation of the murder has been unsatisfactory; for instance, there is evidence that the Trabzon police was told many times of the planned murder, but failed to act. However, so far only the suspected gunman and a group of mostly young men involved in the planning of the murder have been put on trial, as well as two gendarmerie officers in Trabzon.
Trabzon police "not negligent"
On 10 January of this year, the Chief Public Prosecution in Trabzon, in northeastern Turkey, decided not to prosecute seven police officers of the Trabzon police force for gross negligence in the murder of Hrant Dink.
Following the objection of lawyers of the Dink family, the case was taken to the Rize Heavy Penal Court. It has rejected the objection of the lawyers.
Bahri Bayram Belen, one of the lawyers for the Dink family and a joint attorney in the murder trial, told bianet that they have not yet been officially informed of the decision, but that they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as soon as possible.
Police "turned a blind eye"
He said, “Some officers in the Trabzon police, gendarmerie and related intelligence units turned a blind eye to [information telling them about a planned murder] and caused Hrant Dink’s death. This case is very important for us. We had even demanded that the case of the two gendarmerie officers being tried in Trabzon be joined with this case.”
According to the decree of the Rize court, there will be no trial against former intelligence chief Engin Dinc, former anti-terrorism chief Yahya Öztürk or five other police officers from the Trabzon police department for obscuring evidence, gross negligence and protecting criminals.
Based on witness accounts, the Dink family had filed a criminal complaint with the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution. However, the prosecution had decided that the case was not in their jurisdiction and had sent the file to the Trabzon prosecution, despite the argument of the Dink family that the case should be tried as a whole.
The Trabzon prosecution then decided that there was no clear and convincing proof for prosecution. After the objection, the nearest heavy penal court in Rize confirmed this decision, saying there was no evidence of gross negligence or previous knowledge of the murder plans.
RSF: Police officers also need to be put on trial
Meanwhile, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a new press release on 6 March, in which it criticised the lack of progress which a parliamentary subcommittee for human rights was making in its probe into the murder.
Senior police and gendarmerie officials from Istanbul and the Trabzon blamed each other for the failure to take the necessary measures to prevent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink’s murder when they were questioned at the end of last month by the parliamentary subcommittee.
“We reiterate our call for all those investigating the role of the security forces in connection with the Dink murder to make every effort to establish who was responsible for what,” Reporters Without Borders said. “To this end, we think it is important that the police officers implicated should be tried at the same time as Dink’s alleged murderers.”
Trabzon and Istanbul police accuse each other
When the parliamentary subcommittee questioned Trabzon intelligence department chief Engin Dinc on 28 February, he reportedly identified Erhan Tuncel, who is charged with being one of the masterminds of Dink’s murder, as a police informer. Dinc said he only spoke with Tuncel once to ask him to convince Yasin Hayal, another of the Dink trial defendants, not to kill Dink.
Dinc accused Ahmet Ilhan Güler, the head of the Istanbul police intelligence department, of failing to react after the Trabzon police issued an alert about a murder plot. The accusation had already been made to the subcommittee by former Trabzon police chief Ramazan Akyürek, now head of police intelligence in Ankara.
During his appearance before the subcommittee, Akyürek said he alerted the police in 81 cities of “possible attacks against minorities,” adding that “it was not necessary to identify Hrant Dink by name.” Akyürek directly accused Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah of failing to react to his alert.
According to Agos, the subcommittee has decide to question Cerrah again, this time in Ankara.
The Dink family and its lawyers are calling for all the Trabzon and Istanbul police officers involved in the case to be charged and tried in Istanbul. (EÖ/RSF/AG)
