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ANKARA: Dink Trial: Investigation leaves Istanbul, Trial still local

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  • ANKARA: Dink Trial: Investigation leaves Istanbul, Trial still local

    BÄ°A, Turkey
    April 27 2008



    Dink Murder Trial: The investigation leaves Istanbul, but the trial is
    still local

    15 months later, with a hearing nearly every three months, the court
    has still not determined all the responsible parties in Hrant Dink's
    murder trial. The lawyers do not think `a few young men planned the
    murder.'

    Bia news servıce
    27-04-2008
    Erol Ã-NDEROÄ?LU


    The accused murderers of Hrant Dink, the slained editor of bilingual
    Turkish-Armenian biweekly newspaper Agos, will appear before the judge
    for the fifth time 15 months after the murder. On 28 April hearing
    (Monday), the remaining questionings are expected to be completed.

    The Istanbul 14th Criminal Court, which tries the 19 defendants, eight
    of whom are arrested, had demanded at the previous hearing that the
    physical surveillance reports and telephone records concerning the
    arrested defendants Yasin Hayal and Mustafa Ã-ztürk. It is
    established now that Yasin Hayal was under the surveillance of the
    Trabzon Police Department, a major province in the eastern Black Sea
    region of Turkey, and is accused of inciting the killing, facing
    strict life imprisonment. Similarly accused Mustafa Ã-ztürk
    is a member of Alperen Ocakları (translated roughly as
    Hero-Saint Hearths), a far right nationalistic youth group linked to
    the Great Unity Party (BBP).

    It is not known whether the reports will show a connection between the
    Trabzon police, Alperen Ocakları and the Great Unity Party
    (BBP).

    However, during the previous trial, the court had removed the
    obligation that the head of BBP Trabzon provincial organization
    YaÅ?ar Cihan, the member of the Central Decision and Executive
    Committee of BBP Halis Egemen and the two other people should join the
    hearings. Not arrested, these defendants are charged with sentences of
    up to ten years in jail for `being members of a terrorist
    organization.'



    Cinmen: It was planned in Alperen Ocakları, the killers were
    protected



    According to Ergin Cinmen, one of the lawyers of the slained victim,
    who petitioned the court on February 22, there are indications that
    the murder was planned at Alperen Ocakları: the statement by
    Erhan Tuncel, who is being tried as the `inciter brother,' that `I
    still have the key to Alperenler OcaÄ?ı'; his picture
    with the BBP leader Muhsin YazıcıoÄ?lu; the fact
    that his place of work is Alperen Ocakları and that his Alperen
    Ocakları connection was Ã-ztürk.

    The lawyers of the slained victim think that the killing of the
    journalist on January 19, 2007 is not `a murder planned together by a
    few young men and executed in spite of the authorities; they claim
    that the local security units supported this group.



    Ä°stanbul Police Department under investigation; except Cerrah



    The court did not see the need to connect the ongoing trials of the
    two police officers in Samsun, a Black Sea town near Trabzon, and the
    two gendarmerie officers in Trabzon with the hearings of the Dink
    trial. The police officers are accused of dereliction of duty, as they
    had their picture taken with the accused triggerman O.S. and the
    gendarmerie officers are accused with not preventing the murder and
    hiding the evidence.

    Following the lack of jurisdiction decision by Istanbul Chief Public
    Prosecutor's Office, Fatih Public Prosecutor's Office, also in
    Istanbul province, had opened an investigation into the involvement of
    Istanbul's chief of police Celalettin Cerrah and the other Istanbul
    police department officers who are accused of not taking into
    consideration the warnings before the Dink murder.

    Recently, it had made it into the headlines that the Provincial
    administrative Council of the Istanbul Governorship allowed the
    investigation proceed only for Ahmet İlhan Güler, the
    Head of the Intelligence Office for the Istanbul Police Department,
    and the six police officers but kept Cerrah out of it.

    Upon hearing the confession `It was not us, but our superiors who
    neglected their duties' of the two gendarmerie officers who are tried
    for dereliction of duty in Trabzon, the lawyers of Dink family
    petitioned the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office for having
    Trabzon's former Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Ã-z and
    nine gendarmerie officers brought to the Istanbul Chief Public
    Prosecutor's Office to be tried in the murder case.

    The purpose of the lawyers is to combine the trials of police and
    gendarmerie officers in Samsun and Trabzon and perhaps the possible
    trial of Cerrah and the officers tied to him in Istanbul with the
    Dink's murder trial. (EÃ-/GG)

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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