Council of State upholds Interior Ministry’s neglect of duty in Hrant Dink murder

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After Agos Newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink was assassinated in front of the newspaper in İstanbul on January 19, 2007, his family filed a lawsuit for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages against the Ministry of Interior on charge of "neglect of duty" and requested 1.5 million lira in total.

The İstanbul 6th Administrative Court indicated that Dink had been turned into a target due to his some articles published in Agos, he had been subjected to open and imminent danger to his life and he should have been provided with security measures without awaiting his request. Accordingly, the local court concluded that there was no doubt as to the administration's "neglect of duty" in protecting the right to life of late journalist Hrant Dink.

The administrative court unanimously ruled that Hrant Dink's family should be paid 466 thousand 781 Turkish Lira (TRY) in pecuniary damages and 600 thousand TRY in non-pecuniary damages while rejecting the request for additional compensation and accrued interest.

As reported by Agos based on a news report by pro-government daily Sabah, the Ministry of Interior applied to the Council of State and appealed against this ruling. Examining the appeal, the Council of State has upheld the damages to be paid to the Dink family by a majority of votes. The high court has rejected the Ministry of Interior's request for rectifying the ruling.

Yılmaz Akçil, the Presiding Judge of the 10th Chamber of the Council of State, expressed a dissenting opinion. Recalling that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled for the payment of 100 thousand Euro in non-pecuniary damages, he argued that this ruling constituted a repeating ruling and demanded the reversal of the non-pecuniary damages. (KÖ/SD)