The 5th trial of the case related with the assassination of Agos Newspaper Chief Editor, Hrant Dink was held at Istanbul 5th Assize Court.
While the defendants didn’t attend the trial, the lawyers of Dink Family Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, İsmail Cem Halavurt, Sebu Aslangil, Tangül Özer, Emel Ataktürk, Ömer Güven and Diyarbakır Bar Association Chairman Tahir Elçi attended. Without the presence of the defendants in the trial, the lawyer of defendant Osman Hayal and Yasin Hayal, Fatma Aygören and, the lawyer of defendant Erhan Tuncel, Erdoğan Soruklu attended.
Also, Paris Armenian Lawyers’ Association Chairman Alexandre Kuyumcuyan and Gerard Çolakyan from Paris Bar Association, the RSF representatives and HDP Istanbul MP Candidate Filiz Kerestecioğlu watched the trial as well.
Previously the case was overturned by the Supreme Court. In the 5th trial of the new case, the court declared that the report, which has been demanded from TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) in order to identify the person, who followed the offender Ogün Samast in the security footages of a shop on the day of murder, is whether the defendant Osman Hayal or not, has been not received yet. Also, Ahmet İskender, the defendant whom the court issued an arrest warranty upon the verdict of the Supreme Court, has not arrested yet.
Bakırcıoğlu: “The Case should be combined with Ali Öz case”
Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, one of the lawyers of Dink Family, made a request in order to join the case of Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander [in that time] Colonel Ali Öz, and the main case in Istanbul. Bakırcıoğlu mentioned that according to the statements of the public officials, they already heard something about the murder plan; therefore the public officials have also negligence. Reminding the ongoing investigation on the public officials and the arrested policemen, Bakırcıoğlu demanded to wait for the result of this investigation. Bakırcıoğlu said, “Even the file number of the investigation regarding the public officials are started from 2014, this investigation is a follow-up of an investigation which began at 2007. In order to determine the responsibility of the organization and the public officials, we should definitely wait for the result of the investigation file". The court ruled not to wait for the investigation, since the relevant claims have been filed and refused before. The trial will be held on September 3.
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