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Today's Zaman, Turkey
May 15 2013
High court's Dink ruling worse than square one, lawyers say
15 May 2013 /E. BARIÅ? ALTINTAÅ?, MUSTAFA GÃ`RLEK, Ä°STANBUL
The Supreme Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a lower court
ruling in the trial into the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink which dismissed the existence of an organized
criminal network in the case, but it also failed to find a terrorist
organization, which is a major step back in the investigation,
according to critics.
In what many said was a shocking and frustrating ruling for the
five-year-long trial in the Dink case, an Ä°stanbul court found in
early 2012 that there was no terrorist organization involved in the
murder according to evidence submitted to the court and cleared all
suspects in the case of membership in a terrorist organization,
angering lawyers and many others who said the trial failed to shed
light on alleged connections between the suspects and state officials.
The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals on Wednesday
overturned the lower court ruling acquitting the suspects of forming a
terrorist organization, but it said they were guilty of forming an
illegal and armed organization.
The lower court had convicted Yasin Hayal of instigating a murder and
sentenced him to life in prison, while another suspected instigator,
Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted by the court. `We acquitted the suspects
of organized crime charges. This ruling does not mean that there was
no organization involved. This means that there was not enough
evidence to prove the actions of this organization,' the judge said.
In June 2012, Dink's lawyers submitted a petition to the Supreme Court
of Appeals, arguing that the court ruling violated the Turkish Penal
Code (TCK) by acknowledging the existence of a criminal organization
but concluding it could not be located as it remains secret, adding
that the court ignored evidence of organization in the case.
The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the life
sentence of Hayal but revised the verdict of the lower court, saying
that the suspects were members of `an organization established for the
purpose of criminal activities,' not `an armed terrorist
organization,' as the lower court had said in its ruling. The higher
court also asked for a retrial.Fethiye Çetin, a lawyer for the Dink
family, evaluating the ruling said the murder can never be solved
unless public officials complicit in the murder are brought to
justice. She said evidence indicated that there were many individuals
who played a role in the run-up to the murder, but no progress has
been made since 2007, the year of the Dink murder.
She said, regarding the Supreme Court of Appeals' ruling: `When the
Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals first announced
its legal opinion I had said, `We moved back six years.' Now,
six-and-a-half years after the case, we are a few steps behind the
point where we started. The initial trial had been launched on the
premise of a terrorist organization, but the [9th Chamber] decision
says it is an armed organization that formed to commit a crime.'
Çetin said the Dink murder is the kind of homicide that fits the
purpose of a terrorist organization. She described the murder as `an
act aimed at destroying the fundamental rights of organizations
belonging to different ethnic and religious groups.'
However, she said the high court decision regarding Tuncel was better
than that of the lower court, but noted that the high court also
didn't describe Tuncel as the founder or solicitor of the organization
but only a member.
Erdal DoÄ?an, a lawyer for the Zirve murders of 2007, said the high
court's ruling overshadowed the hitman's links to Ergenekon -- a
clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
DoÄ?an said: `The role of the gendarmerie, the Zirve Publishing House
murders, the link with [illegal gendarmerie unit] TUSHAD, the
involvement of the Special Operations Department mentioned in a report
compiled by the National Intelligence Agency [MÄ°T] -- all points that
came up during the murder investigation -- are being ignored with this
decision. There is an attempt to conceal these links and to show this
crime as if it was committed by a regular criminal organization.'
DoÄ?an said the ruling was highly questionable, but said he was hopeful
because the ruling in the made a retrial possible.
Dink lawyer Hakan BakırcıoÄ?lu said the ruling was possible because it
overruled the finding of the 14th High Criminal Court that the hitman
and his accomplice had acted alone with no organized crime link.
`However, the Supreme Court of Appeals' decision makes this look like
it is an ordinary crime. I think the existing evidence has not been
evaluated in light of anti-terror laws.'
Lawyer Bahri Belen said the murder clearly falls under the scope of
terror crimes, as it sought to create chaos in society. `The Dink
murder, together with the bombing of McDonald's, threatening Orhan
Pamuk and the murder of Father Santoro are linked to one another, and
they occurred at a time when their occurrence would place the Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) in a difficult position.'
In initial remarks about the ruling, Gençay Gürsoy, a founder of the
Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) said the decision was not surprising,
given the state of affairs in Turkish judiciary. Gürsoy said: `It is
not a verdict of a kind we are not used to. We have unfortunately not
seen a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeals that discerns right
from wrong. It is just one of those decisions. They are simply trying
to water this down by using verdicts that are in the middle; that can
be interpreted both ways [in favor of Dink lawyers, or in favor of the
real culprits].'
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Mersin deputy ErtuÄ?rul Kürkçü also
shared his comments with the press on Wednesday, during a press
conference regarding a strike at the Turkish Airlines (THY). Kürkçü
said, the existence of an organization had been presented in the case
earlier by Dink lawyers. `If this has been confirmed, now we want the
investigation into this organization to start from scratch. All the
security personnel who has been implicated in this [Dink murder] have
been promoted under the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). If
you think about the chief judge in the trial against Hrant Dink [over
an alleged insult against Turkishness prior to his death] being
appointed as the ombudsman, or the police chiefs [implicated in the
murder plot] being promoted to head the intelligence departments
clearly show that the truth will not emerge at this time.'
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
was shot dead in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
Ä°stanbul.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-315553-high-courts-dink-ruling-worse-than-square-one-lawyers-say.html
From: Baghdasarian
May 15 2013
High court's Dink ruling worse than square one, lawyers say
15 May 2013 /E. BARIÅ? ALTINTAÅ?, MUSTAFA GÃ`RLEK, Ä°STANBUL
The Supreme Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a lower court
ruling in the trial into the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink which dismissed the existence of an organized
criminal network in the case, but it also failed to find a terrorist
organization, which is a major step back in the investigation,
according to critics.
In what many said was a shocking and frustrating ruling for the
five-year-long trial in the Dink case, an Ä°stanbul court found in
early 2012 that there was no terrorist organization involved in the
murder according to evidence submitted to the court and cleared all
suspects in the case of membership in a terrorist organization,
angering lawyers and many others who said the trial failed to shed
light on alleged connections between the suspects and state officials.
The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals on Wednesday
overturned the lower court ruling acquitting the suspects of forming a
terrorist organization, but it said they were guilty of forming an
illegal and armed organization.
The lower court had convicted Yasin Hayal of instigating a murder and
sentenced him to life in prison, while another suspected instigator,
Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted by the court. `We acquitted the suspects
of organized crime charges. This ruling does not mean that there was
no organization involved. This means that there was not enough
evidence to prove the actions of this organization,' the judge said.
In June 2012, Dink's lawyers submitted a petition to the Supreme Court
of Appeals, arguing that the court ruling violated the Turkish Penal
Code (TCK) by acknowledging the existence of a criminal organization
but concluding it could not be located as it remains secret, adding
that the court ignored evidence of organization in the case.
The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the life
sentence of Hayal but revised the verdict of the lower court, saying
that the suspects were members of `an organization established for the
purpose of criminal activities,' not `an armed terrorist
organization,' as the lower court had said in its ruling. The higher
court also asked for a retrial.Fethiye Çetin, a lawyer for the Dink
family, evaluating the ruling said the murder can never be solved
unless public officials complicit in the murder are brought to
justice. She said evidence indicated that there were many individuals
who played a role in the run-up to the murder, but no progress has
been made since 2007, the year of the Dink murder.
She said, regarding the Supreme Court of Appeals' ruling: `When the
Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals first announced
its legal opinion I had said, `We moved back six years.' Now,
six-and-a-half years after the case, we are a few steps behind the
point where we started. The initial trial had been launched on the
premise of a terrorist organization, but the [9th Chamber] decision
says it is an armed organization that formed to commit a crime.'
Çetin said the Dink murder is the kind of homicide that fits the
purpose of a terrorist organization. She described the murder as `an
act aimed at destroying the fundamental rights of organizations
belonging to different ethnic and religious groups.'
However, she said the high court decision regarding Tuncel was better
than that of the lower court, but noted that the high court also
didn't describe Tuncel as the founder or solicitor of the organization
but only a member.
Erdal DoÄ?an, a lawyer for the Zirve murders of 2007, said the high
court's ruling overshadowed the hitman's links to Ergenekon -- a
clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
DoÄ?an said: `The role of the gendarmerie, the Zirve Publishing House
murders, the link with [illegal gendarmerie unit] TUSHAD, the
involvement of the Special Operations Department mentioned in a report
compiled by the National Intelligence Agency [MÄ°T] -- all points that
came up during the murder investigation -- are being ignored with this
decision. There is an attempt to conceal these links and to show this
crime as if it was committed by a regular criminal organization.'
DoÄ?an said the ruling was highly questionable, but said he was hopeful
because the ruling in the made a retrial possible.
Dink lawyer Hakan BakırcıoÄ?lu said the ruling was possible because it
overruled the finding of the 14th High Criminal Court that the hitman
and his accomplice had acted alone with no organized crime link.
`However, the Supreme Court of Appeals' decision makes this look like
it is an ordinary crime. I think the existing evidence has not been
evaluated in light of anti-terror laws.'
Lawyer Bahri Belen said the murder clearly falls under the scope of
terror crimes, as it sought to create chaos in society. `The Dink
murder, together with the bombing of McDonald's, threatening Orhan
Pamuk and the murder of Father Santoro are linked to one another, and
they occurred at a time when their occurrence would place the Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) in a difficult position.'
In initial remarks about the ruling, Gençay Gürsoy, a founder of the
Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) said the decision was not surprising,
given the state of affairs in Turkish judiciary. Gürsoy said: `It is
not a verdict of a kind we are not used to. We have unfortunately not
seen a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeals that discerns right
from wrong. It is just one of those decisions. They are simply trying
to water this down by using verdicts that are in the middle; that can
be interpreted both ways [in favor of Dink lawyers, or in favor of the
real culprits].'
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Mersin deputy ErtuÄ?rul Kürkçü also
shared his comments with the press on Wednesday, during a press
conference regarding a strike at the Turkish Airlines (THY). Kürkçü
said, the existence of an organization had been presented in the case
earlier by Dink lawyers. `If this has been confirmed, now we want the
investigation into this organization to start from scratch. All the
security personnel who has been implicated in this [Dink murder] have
been promoted under the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). If
you think about the chief judge in the trial against Hrant Dink [over
an alleged insult against Turkishness prior to his death] being
appointed as the ombudsman, or the police chiefs [implicated in the
murder plot] being promoted to head the intelligence departments
clearly show that the truth will not emerge at this time.'
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
was shot dead in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
Ä°stanbul.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-315553-high-courts-dink-ruling-worse-than-square-one-lawyers-say.html
From: Baghdasarian