First Hearing of Prime Suspect at Juvenile Court

The trial against defendant Ogün Samast, triggerman suspect in the Hrant Dink murder case, started on Monday (28 February) before the Sultanahmet (Istanbul) 2^nd Juvenile High Criminal Court.

Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink was shot in front of his office in Şişli/Istanbul in bold daylight more than four years ago on 19 January 2007. Dink was the founder and then Editor-in-Chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper.

Lawyer Fethiye Çetin, joint attorney of the Dink family, spoke to the journalists in front of the courthouse. She said that the Dink family members were not going to attend any hearing held at the Sultanahmet Juvenile Court in order to express their protest against the circumstances that Samast is being tried at a children and juveniles court.

The Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court had decided in October 2010 that Samast should be prosecuted at a Children and Juvenile Court because he was under-age at the time of the murder. This decision came after a trial period of more than three years.

Nine members of Dink family co-plaintiffs

The court accepted Rakel Dink, widow of the slain journalist, his brothers Arat and Hosrof Dink, furthermore Ferat, Ara, Aycan, Zabal, Maral and Haskanoş Dink as co-plaintiffs. The application of the Agos newspaper and the Birgün daily, a nation-wide newspaper Dink used to write for, for co-plaintiff status were accepted as well. Savo and Mikail Yağbasan, brothers of Rakel Dink, were dismissed as co-plaintiffs because they had "not suffered direct harm", the court reasoned.

Samast a "child dragged into crime"?

The court rejected the request to hold a closed session without the press. The journalists were allowed into the court room at around noon time. The court president called Samast a "child having been dragged to crime".

Six witnesses heard

At the Monday hearing, the court took the statements of eyewitnesses Akif Çalıkoğlu, Cemal Yıldırım, Ahmet Emin Özmete and Agos employees Dina Murat, Christine Dellaloğlu and İbrahim Çağlayan. The court decided to keep Samast in detention. Most of the witnesses said that the weapon Samast was holing was "grey" or of "light colour". The court is going to hear ten other witnesses in the coming hearing on 4 April.

Joint attorney Bahri Bayram Belen interrogated Samast on the weapon. Belen indicated that the aim was not to prosecute Samast for a high prison sentence but to reveal the concrete background of the murder.

Decision for Juvenile Court and its appeal

On 25 October 2010, the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court decided for a "lack of jurisdiction" in relation to defendant Samast according to certain amendments regarding the Anti Terror Law (TMY). Thereupon, the court decided to prosecute Samast before a Children and Juveniles Court.

The Dink family lawyers appealed the decision on the following day and demanded to handle the case as a whole at the 14^th High Criminal Court.

Joint attorney Arzu Becerik had announced that Samast could be released in a short time because his case was transferred to a juvenile court. Becerik had expressed her concern that Samast could be released pending trial in January 2010.

Becerik criticized that the trial fell in abeyance when Samast's file was transferred to the juvenile court and that the procedures gave the impression that a decision would not be given any time soon. "If the prosecution of Samast will be continued at a juvenile court, he will be out of prison after five years", the lawyer stated referring to certain applications of mitigation for juveniles.

Samast facing 20 years in jail

Samast is facing up to 20 years in prison on charges of "membership of an illegal organization" and "unlicensed gun possession".

Samast stands accused of killing journalist Dink in front of the Agos newspaper office in Istanbul. He was arrested on his way back to his home town Trabzon at the Samsun coach station (Black Sea coast) one day after the murder. He has been detained for four years. (EG/EÖ/VK)