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LIFE SENTENCE URGED IN TURKEY IN JOURNALIST'S MURDER CASE
Agence France Presse
September 19, 2011 Monday 8:50 PM GMT
An Istanbul prosecutor on Monday requested life sentences for seven
suspects in the murder of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, Anatolia news agency reported.
Dink was gunned down in broad daylight in 2007.
At a high criminal court hearing, the prosecutor accused the defendants
of attempting to destroy the democratic order using force and violence
citing article 309 of the Turkish penal code which refers to crimes
against the Constitution.
The prosecutor also said that documents, information and evidence
obtained in the Dink case were being evaluated in association with
the so-called Ergenekon probe, a shadowy gang bent on toppling the
country's Islamist-rooted government.
Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel masterminded Dink's murder committed by
Ergenekon members operating in the Black Sea province of Trabzon in
the north, said the prosecutor according to the agency.
In July, a Turkish court handed down a jail term of nearly 23 years
to Ogun Samast, Dink's self-confessed murderer.
The juvenile court initially condemned Samast to life, but then
reduced the sentence to 21 years and six months on the grounds he
was under age at the time of the murder.
He was given an additional 16 months for possession of an unlicensed
weapon.
Dink's assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey and grew into a
scandal after it emerged that the security forces knew of a plot to
kill the Turkish-Armenian journalist, but failed to act.
The journalist was already receiving death threats from hardline
nationalists.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52,
campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their
bloody history.
Nationalists however hated him for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule genocide, a term that Turkey fiercely rejects.
Prosecutors say police received intelligence as early as 2006 of a
plot to kill Dink being organised in Trabzon, the city Samast and
several other defendants call home.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that Turkish
authorities failed to take adequate measures to protect Dink.
In June, a colonel and five subordinates who held key posts in Trabzon
when a group of local youths hatched the assassination plot were
given jail sentences of four to six months for negligence.
The case is seen as a test for Ankara's resolve to eliminate the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe security forces acting outside the
law to preserve what they consider Turkey's best interests.
The Dink family's legal team suspect the gunman was encouraged by
elements of the "deep state" but their efforts to put more officials
on trial have failed.
They have accused police of withholding and destroying evidence to
cover up the murder, including footage from a bank security camera
in the street where the journalist was gunned down.
Dink had won many hearts in Turkey with his message of peace and more
than 100,000 people marched at his funeral.
Agence France Presse
September 19, 2011 Monday 8:50 PM GMT
An Istanbul prosecutor on Monday requested life sentences for seven
suspects in the murder of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, Anatolia news agency reported.
Dink was gunned down in broad daylight in 2007.
At a high criminal court hearing, the prosecutor accused the defendants
of attempting to destroy the democratic order using force and violence
citing article 309 of the Turkish penal code which refers to crimes
against the Constitution.
The prosecutor also said that documents, information and evidence
obtained in the Dink case were being evaluated in association with
the so-called Ergenekon probe, a shadowy gang bent on toppling the
country's Islamist-rooted government.
Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel masterminded Dink's murder committed by
Ergenekon members operating in the Black Sea province of Trabzon in
the north, said the prosecutor according to the agency.
In July, a Turkish court handed down a jail term of nearly 23 years
to Ogun Samast, Dink's self-confessed murderer.
The juvenile court initially condemned Samast to life, but then
reduced the sentence to 21 years and six months on the grounds he
was under age at the time of the murder.
He was given an additional 16 months for possession of an unlicensed
weapon.
Dink's assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey and grew into a
scandal after it emerged that the security forces knew of a plot to
kill the Turkish-Armenian journalist, but failed to act.
The journalist was already receiving death threats from hardline
nationalists.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52,
campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their
bloody history.
Nationalists however hated him for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule genocide, a term that Turkey fiercely rejects.
Prosecutors say police received intelligence as early as 2006 of a
plot to kill Dink being organised in Trabzon, the city Samast and
several other defendants call home.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that Turkish
authorities failed to take adequate measures to protect Dink.
In June, a colonel and five subordinates who held key posts in Trabzon
when a group of local youths hatched the assassination plot were
given jail sentences of four to six months for negligence.
The case is seen as a test for Ankara's resolve to eliminate the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe security forces acting outside the
law to preserve what they consider Turkey's best interests.
The Dink family's legal team suspect the gunman was encouraged by
elements of the "deep state" but their efforts to put more officials
on trial have failed.
They have accused police of withholding and destroying evidence to
cover up the murder, including footage from a bank security camera
in the street where the journalist was gunned down.
Dink had won many hearts in Turkey with his message of peace and more
than 100,000 people marched at his funeral.