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Witness in Dink case claims phone recordings were erased
13:48 - 02.04.11
A chief police inspector has claimed that phone recordings of Yasin
Hayal, a suspect in the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink, were erased
by the Ankara Police, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The statement by the inspector, a witness in the case, comes following
a request to have alleged gunman Ogun Samast's father heard as a
witness in order to explain his son's relationship with a `gendarmerie
commander' that he mentioned before.
Critics of how the case is being pursued say the state is continuing
to drag its feet on broadening the investigation despite the new
allegations.
The Ankara chief prosecutor received testimonies from former Trabzon
Police Directorate authorities, including former Deputy Police Chief
Emin Aslan and Chief Police Inspector Levent Yarimel, who were asked
to be tried on accusations of neglect of duty in Dink's murder.
Yarimel, who testified to the Prosecutor's Office in Trabzon regarding
the murder case, claimed phone recordings of suspect Hayal had been
erased by the Intelligence Unit of the Police Directorate in Ankara.
He also said the Intelligence Unit's official report saying there had
not been any investigation conducted regarding the telephone owned by
Hayal did not reflect the truth.
According to Yarimel, erasing the phone recordings might have been
done when investigations started into the inspectors regarding Dink's
murder. He claimed that something like that could not have been done
without the order of the police chiefs in the Intelligence Unit of the
Police Directorate.
The Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had accepted a request in
February for some police officers to be questioned within the scope of
the murder investigation.
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent, was killed 19 January
2007 in Istanbul.
Former Trabzon Police Chief Resat Altay and his deputy Yarimel are
among the officers facing questioning in connection with the case. The
officers are among public officials suspected by the family's lawyers
of neglecting their duty or knowingly not taking action to prevent the
murder.
Tert.am
From: A. Papazian
13:48 - 02.04.11
A chief police inspector has claimed that phone recordings of Yasin
Hayal, a suspect in the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink, were erased
by the Ankara Police, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The statement by the inspector, a witness in the case, comes following
a request to have alleged gunman Ogun Samast's father heard as a
witness in order to explain his son's relationship with a `gendarmerie
commander' that he mentioned before.
Critics of how the case is being pursued say the state is continuing
to drag its feet on broadening the investigation despite the new
allegations.
The Ankara chief prosecutor received testimonies from former Trabzon
Police Directorate authorities, including former Deputy Police Chief
Emin Aslan and Chief Police Inspector Levent Yarimel, who were asked
to be tried on accusations of neglect of duty in Dink's murder.
Yarimel, who testified to the Prosecutor's Office in Trabzon regarding
the murder case, claimed phone recordings of suspect Hayal had been
erased by the Intelligence Unit of the Police Directorate in Ankara.
He also said the Intelligence Unit's official report saying there had
not been any investigation conducted regarding the telephone owned by
Hayal did not reflect the truth.
According to Yarimel, erasing the phone recordings might have been
done when investigations started into the inspectors regarding Dink's
murder. He claimed that something like that could not have been done
without the order of the police chiefs in the Intelligence Unit of the
Police Directorate.
The Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had accepted a request in
February for some police officers to be questioned within the scope of
the murder investigation.
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent, was killed 19 January
2007 in Istanbul.
Former Trabzon Police Chief Resat Altay and his deputy Yarimel are
among the officers facing questioning in connection with the case. The
officers are among public officials suspected by the family's lawyers
of neglecting their duty or knowingly not taking action to prevent the
murder.
Tert.am
From: A. Papazian