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COURT'S REASONED OPINION ON DINK VERDICT UNSATISFACTORY, LAWYER SAYS
Today's Zaman
Feb 23 2012
Turkey
An İstanbul high criminal court on Thursday announced its reasoned
decision concerning an earlier ruling that there was no involvement of
an organized criminal network in the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, citing insufficient evidence to prove wider
involvement in the murder, which a lawyer for the Dink family says
is hardly convincing.
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court said in its 216-page-long
reasoned decision, distributed to lawyers involved in the case on
Thursday, that the court could not establish the journalist was killed
by an organized criminal network. In what many said was a shocking
and frustrating ruling in the five-year-long trial of the Dink case,
the İstanbul court last month cleared all suspects of charges of
membership in a criminal organization, angering lawyers and many
others who say the trial failed to shed light on alleged connections
between the suspects and state officials.
Cem Halavurt, a lawyer for Hrant Dink, told Today's Zaman that the
court's 210-page reasoned opinion was a confirmation of its verdict
listing all the evidence the court has for not establishing that
there is involvement of an organized crime network. "So the court is
listing all the evidence and we are listing all the evidence here,
and we see the clear involvement of a criminal network. The court
talks at length on why it failed to see evidence for suspecting an
organized network, but there is clear evidence indicating an organized
crime link, given what we know about the suspects. So this is about
interpretation or misinterpretation"
The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, of instigating a murder and sentenced
him to life in prison. Another suspected instigator, Erhan Tuncel,
was acquitted by the court.
"We have on our hands a situation in which it is unnatural for the
suspects to decide on and commit a murder on their own that would
bring about so many political consequences. This situation also
raises suspicion [of the involvement of a criminal organization
in the murder]. Suspicion is a rule of criminal law that should be
interpreted in favor of the suspect. Because of all these reasons,
it was necessary to acquit the suspects [of membership in a terrorist
organization] since the crimes of establishing, being a member of and
aiding a terrorist organization attributed to the suspects could not
be definitely proven with concrete evidence," the court said.
The court added that the evidence on hand failed to establish when
and with what motive a criminal organization would have had a hand
in the murder.
Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by ultranationalist Ogun Samast
outside the offices of his newspaper in İstanbul in broad daylight.
Even though five years have passed since his assassination, Dink family
lawyers and civil society organizations have long remained concerned
that evidence relating to the real perpetrators of the crime is still
being covered up and that even if the court's ruling punishes the
hitmen, the public's sense of justice will not be satisfied. The
assassination is suspected of being the work of Ergenekon, a
clandestine network whose suspected members -- including generals,
military officers and many civilians -- are currently in jail for
plotting a military takeover.
Today's Zaman
Feb 23 2012
Turkey
An İstanbul high criminal court on Thursday announced its reasoned
decision concerning an earlier ruling that there was no involvement of
an organized criminal network in the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, citing insufficient evidence to prove wider
involvement in the murder, which a lawyer for the Dink family says
is hardly convincing.
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court said in its 216-page-long
reasoned decision, distributed to lawyers involved in the case on
Thursday, that the court could not establish the journalist was killed
by an organized criminal network. In what many said was a shocking
and frustrating ruling in the five-year-long trial of the Dink case,
the İstanbul court last month cleared all suspects of charges of
membership in a criminal organization, angering lawyers and many
others who say the trial failed to shed light on alleged connections
between the suspects and state officials.
Cem Halavurt, a lawyer for Hrant Dink, told Today's Zaman that the
court's 210-page reasoned opinion was a confirmation of its verdict
listing all the evidence the court has for not establishing that
there is involvement of an organized crime network. "So the court is
listing all the evidence and we are listing all the evidence here,
and we see the clear involvement of a criminal network. The court
talks at length on why it failed to see evidence for suspecting an
organized network, but there is clear evidence indicating an organized
crime link, given what we know about the suspects. So this is about
interpretation or misinterpretation"
The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, of instigating a murder and sentenced
him to life in prison. Another suspected instigator, Erhan Tuncel,
was acquitted by the court.
"We have on our hands a situation in which it is unnatural for the
suspects to decide on and commit a murder on their own that would
bring about so many political consequences. This situation also
raises suspicion [of the involvement of a criminal organization
in the murder]. Suspicion is a rule of criminal law that should be
interpreted in favor of the suspect. Because of all these reasons,
it was necessary to acquit the suspects [of membership in a terrorist
organization] since the crimes of establishing, being a member of and
aiding a terrorist organization attributed to the suspects could not
be definitely proven with concrete evidence," the court said.
The court added that the evidence on hand failed to establish when
and with what motive a criminal organization would have had a hand
in the murder.
Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by ultranationalist Ogun Samast
outside the offices of his newspaper in İstanbul in broad daylight.
Even though five years have passed since his assassination, Dink family
lawyers and civil society organizations have long remained concerned
that evidence relating to the real perpetrators of the crime is still
being covered up and that even if the court's ruling punishes the
hitmen, the public's sense of justice will not be satisfied. The
assassination is suspected of being the work of Ergenekon, a
clandestine network whose suspected members -- including generals,
military officers and many civilians -- are currently in jail for
plotting a military takeover.