Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: New Suspect In Dink Case Confirmed By Witnesses

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: New Suspect In Dink Case Confirmed By Witnesses

    NEW SUSPECT IN DINK CASE CONFIRMED BY WITNESSES

    Today's Zaman
    Aug 23 2008
    Turkey

    Eyewitnesses to a high-profile assassination in Ä°stanbul last year
    attested yesterday to the presence of a newly discovered suspect in
    the murder case of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, shot dead
    by a teenager over a year ago.

    Prosecutors have for the past week been investigating claims that
    Osman Hayal, the brother of one of the suspects, was also at the
    scene on the day of the murder.

    Dink was gunned down on Jan. 19, 2007 in broad daylight outside
    the office of Agos, a newspaper where he was the editor-in-chief,
    by ultranationalist Ogun Samast, who was 17 at the time of the
    murder. The teenager swiftly confessed to the murder and accused
    Yasin Hayal from the northern city of Trabzon of having provoked
    him to the act. However, witnesses have consistently claimed that a
    second person was at the scene of the murder with Samast that day,
    a claim partially supported by security camera coverage, as the
    footage shows a nervous man making frequent phone calls.

    The police also had evidence to suspect that the second person with
    Samast on that day was Yasin Hayal's brother, Osman Hayal, whose SIM
    card was proven to have been emanating signals in Ä°stanbul on the
    day of Dink's assassination. Osman Hayal was detained in Trabzon on
    Wednesday and brought on Thursday for interrogation to Ä°stanbul,
    where he was also shown to witnesses, who confirmed Osman Hayal was
    the man they had seen on the day of the murder. Hayal's interrogation
    at the police station has been completed, and he is due to appear in
    court today.

    Despite Samast's immediate confession to the murder, the ensuing
    investigation has been highly controversial. Evidence gathered quickly
    made it obvious that the young man had not acted alone but was in fact
    driven by a group of people whom he called "older brothers" who had
    plotted the crime for more than a year. One of these men, a former
    police informant, allegedly tipped off the police on more than one
    occasion about the assassination plan. Another witness testified during
    the trial that he too had been informed about the plan to kill Dink, by
    a gendarmerie colonel. In addition to shady links between the suspects
    and security institutions, lawyers representing the Dink family have
    accused the police at various times of destroying vital evidence and
    concealing crucial information from the court and the prosecution.

    In a 180-page report on their investigation, a parliamentary
    subcommittee on the Dink murder announced in late July their conclusion
    that "there has been negligence, fault and bad coordination both on
    the part of the police department and the gendarmerie" in processing
    intelligence information about the plot to kill Dink.

    Lawyers representing the Dink family have consistently asserted that
    Ergenekon -- a network suspected of a large number of politically
    motivated crimes including bombings and murders for the ultimate
    purpose of overthrowing the legitimate government -- is behind the
    Dink murder.

    --Boundary_(ID_BhFmZoCtyhZ72aFq8rjjgw)--

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X