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30 PUBLIC OFFICIALS TO BE PROSECUTED FOR AIDING, ABETTING DINK'S MURDER
Today's Zaman
Nov 17 2011
Turkey
In this 2009 file photo, former Ä°stanbul Governor Muammer Guler
(L) gives letter of recognition to former Ä°stanbul Police Chief
Celalettin Cerrah (R) for his service. (Photo: Today's Zaman)
A prosecutor overseeing an investigation into claims of negligence
by public officials in protecting Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in 2007, has decided to prosecute 30
high-level public officials, including Ä°stanbul's former governor
and police chief, on charges of "aiding and abetting murder" instead
of negligence.
The Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday that prosecutor
Muammer AkkaÅ~_ recently filed a non-prosecution order for the
30 suspects on negligence charges after the denial of permission
from the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office to launch a probe against the
suspects. The Ä°stanbul Prosecutor's Office appealed the decision
at the Ä°stanbul Regional Administrative Court, but the court ruled
that the 30 public officials could not be prosecuted on charges of
negligence due to a lack of evidence.
The Ä°stanbul Prosecutor's Office then filed a non-prosecution order
with regards to the charges of negligence and has reportedly decided
to move forward with the investigation by filing charges against the
suspects of aiding and abetting the commission of Dink's murder.
The initial investigation, which includes former Ä°stanbul Governor
Muammer Guler and former Ä°stanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah,
was launched following repeated demands from Dink family lawyers
that a new investigation be launched into several public officials
who were allegedly negligent in their duty to protect Dink.
Dink was gunned down by a teenager outside his newspaper's Ä°stanbul
office in January 2007, but the ensuing investigation has been highly
controversial. The investigation made it obvious that the young man
hadn't acted alone but was in fact driven by a group of people whom
he called older brothers and who had plotted for more than a year.
In addition to there being suspicious links between the suspects and
state security institutions, lawyers representing the Dink family
have accused the police of destroying vital evidence and concealing
crucial information from the court and the prosecution. Dink family
lawyers also claimed that some public officials had prior knowledge
about a plot to kill Dink, since July 2006, and failed to take the
necessary precautions, suggesting that they had personal relations
with the suspects in Dink's murder, whose trial is under way at
Ä°stanbul's 14th High Criminal Court.
Also in September of last year, the European Court of Human Rights
declared that the Turkish government had failed in its duty to protect
the life of Dink and to effectively investigate his murder. The
court said police in both Trabzon -- the hometown of the assailant,
Ogun Samast -- and Ä°stanbul and the Trabzon gendarmerie had been
informed of the likelihood of an assassination attempt and even of
the identity of the suspected instigators.
Today's Zaman
Nov 17 2011
Turkey
In this 2009 file photo, former Ä°stanbul Governor Muammer Guler
(L) gives letter of recognition to former Ä°stanbul Police Chief
Celalettin Cerrah (R) for his service. (Photo: Today's Zaman)
A prosecutor overseeing an investigation into claims of negligence
by public officials in protecting Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in 2007, has decided to prosecute 30
high-level public officials, including Ä°stanbul's former governor
and police chief, on charges of "aiding and abetting murder" instead
of negligence.
The Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday that prosecutor
Muammer AkkaÅ~_ recently filed a non-prosecution order for the
30 suspects on negligence charges after the denial of permission
from the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office to launch a probe against the
suspects. The Ä°stanbul Prosecutor's Office appealed the decision
at the Ä°stanbul Regional Administrative Court, but the court ruled
that the 30 public officials could not be prosecuted on charges of
negligence due to a lack of evidence.
The Ä°stanbul Prosecutor's Office then filed a non-prosecution order
with regards to the charges of negligence and has reportedly decided
to move forward with the investigation by filing charges against the
suspects of aiding and abetting the commission of Dink's murder.
The initial investigation, which includes former Ä°stanbul Governor
Muammer Guler and former Ä°stanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah,
was launched following repeated demands from Dink family lawyers
that a new investigation be launched into several public officials
who were allegedly negligent in their duty to protect Dink.
Dink was gunned down by a teenager outside his newspaper's Ä°stanbul
office in January 2007, but the ensuing investigation has been highly
controversial. The investigation made it obvious that the young man
hadn't acted alone but was in fact driven by a group of people whom
he called older brothers and who had plotted for more than a year.
In addition to there being suspicious links between the suspects and
state security institutions, lawyers representing the Dink family
have accused the police of destroying vital evidence and concealing
crucial information from the court and the prosecution. Dink family
lawyers also claimed that some public officials had prior knowledge
about a plot to kill Dink, since July 2006, and failed to take the
necessary precautions, suggesting that they had personal relations
with the suspects in Dink's murder, whose trial is under way at
Ä°stanbul's 14th High Criminal Court.
Also in September of last year, the European Court of Human Rights
declared that the Turkish government had failed in its duty to protect
the life of Dink and to effectively investigate his murder. The
court said police in both Trabzon -- the hometown of the assailant,
Ogun Samast -- and Ä°stanbul and the Trabzon gendarmerie had been
informed of the likelihood of an assassination attempt and even of
the identity of the suspected instigators.