LAWYERS TO FOCUS ON 'TERROR ORGANIZATION' IN DINK CASE
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Sept 11 2013
ISTANBUL - Hurriyet Daily News
by Vercihan Ziflioglu
The 'terror organization' aspect of case over the assassination of
Hrant Dink will be more focused according to lawyers, as it will
restart next week
The case related to the assassination of Hrant Dink, which is set to
restart on Sept. 17, will be more focused on the "terror organization"
aspect of the case, one of the Dink family lawyers has said.
Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News, lawyer Cem Halavurt said they
would demand that the "real web of connections" be brought to light.
An Istanbul court will begin rehearing the case related to the
assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, after the Supreme
Court of Appeals overturned Yasin Hayal's acquittal on charges of
"being a terrorist organization leader" and finding him guilty of
"founding and leading an organization for crime" earlier this year.
"The Dink case is even more complicated than the Ergenekon [coup plot]
case, and that is why it has not been illuminated yet," Halavurt said.
"Unless this case is solved, the deep state will not have been
unveiled."
Dink, the renowned editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot in front of his
office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.
The triggerman, Ogun Samast, 17-years-old at the time of the murder,
and Yasin Hayal, who was charged of being the instigator of the
assassination, were convicted of the murder. However, a high criminal
court dismissed charges related to "armed terrorist organization."
Later, a Supreme Court verdict defined the acts of all suspects in
the case under "an organization formed to commit crime" according to
Turkish Penal Code Article 220. "The local court ruled there was no
criminal organization involved, but the Supreme Court said there was a
criminal organization. We have been saying all along that there was an
armed terror organization behind this assassination," the lawyer said.
"The court said the suspects committed an act of punishment against
Dink as a person, not against the state or the public order. That was
why it was not considered a terrorist act. We will try to prove that
it was the work of a terror organization."
Halavurt added that it was impossible to continue the case as it was.
He claimed that evidence establishing key links in the murder to
retired general Veli Kucuk and lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who were both
given life sentences in the Ergenekon case, had been deliberately
erased by the police department.
"You cannot reach the data with writing petitions to the General
Staff, the gendarmerie, the National Intelligence Agency [MİT], or the
Trabzon and Istanbul police departments," he said. "[The court] should
order the handing over of the digital systems of those institutions
[to unveil the links]." Another lawyer of the Dink family, Fethiye
Cetin, is set to release a book on the court process of the Dink case,
in which she claims the MİT played a role in the assassination.
Halavurt said that the claims in the book "Utanc Duyuyorum: Hrant Dink
Cinayeti Yargısı" ("I Feel Ashamed: The Judgment of the Hrant Dink
Murder) that the killing order was given by MİT with an encrypted
message, were well established. "Public opinion is aware that the
MİT, as an institution, played a role in the Dink murder, and there
is evidence in the court files," he said.
September/11/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/lawyers-to-focus-on-terror-organization-in-dink-case.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54227&NewsCatID=339
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Sept 11 2013
ISTANBUL - Hurriyet Daily News
by Vercihan Ziflioglu
The 'terror organization' aspect of case over the assassination of
Hrant Dink will be more focused according to lawyers, as it will
restart next week
The case related to the assassination of Hrant Dink, which is set to
restart on Sept. 17, will be more focused on the "terror organization"
aspect of the case, one of the Dink family lawyers has said.
Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News, lawyer Cem Halavurt said they
would demand that the "real web of connections" be brought to light.
An Istanbul court will begin rehearing the case related to the
assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, after the Supreme
Court of Appeals overturned Yasin Hayal's acquittal on charges of
"being a terrorist organization leader" and finding him guilty of
"founding and leading an organization for crime" earlier this year.
"The Dink case is even more complicated than the Ergenekon [coup plot]
case, and that is why it has not been illuminated yet," Halavurt said.
"Unless this case is solved, the deep state will not have been
unveiled."
Dink, the renowned editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot in front of his
office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.
The triggerman, Ogun Samast, 17-years-old at the time of the murder,
and Yasin Hayal, who was charged of being the instigator of the
assassination, were convicted of the murder. However, a high criminal
court dismissed charges related to "armed terrorist organization."
Later, a Supreme Court verdict defined the acts of all suspects in
the case under "an organization formed to commit crime" according to
Turkish Penal Code Article 220. "The local court ruled there was no
criminal organization involved, but the Supreme Court said there was a
criminal organization. We have been saying all along that there was an
armed terror organization behind this assassination," the lawyer said.
"The court said the suspects committed an act of punishment against
Dink as a person, not against the state or the public order. That was
why it was not considered a terrorist act. We will try to prove that
it was the work of a terror organization."
Halavurt added that it was impossible to continue the case as it was.
He claimed that evidence establishing key links in the murder to
retired general Veli Kucuk and lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who were both
given life sentences in the Ergenekon case, had been deliberately
erased by the police department.
"You cannot reach the data with writing petitions to the General
Staff, the gendarmerie, the National Intelligence Agency [MİT], or the
Trabzon and Istanbul police departments," he said. "[The court] should
order the handing over of the digital systems of those institutions
[to unveil the links]." Another lawyer of the Dink family, Fethiye
Cetin, is set to release a book on the court process of the Dink case,
in which she claims the MİT played a role in the assassination.
Halavurt said that the claims in the book "Utanc Duyuyorum: Hrant Dink
Cinayeti Yargısı" ("I Feel Ashamed: The Judgment of the Hrant Dink
Murder) that the killing order was given by MİT with an encrypted
message, were well established. "Public opinion is aware that the
MİT, as an institution, played a role in the Dink murder, and there
is evidence in the court files," he said.
September/11/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/lawyers-to-focus-on-terror-organization-in-dink-case.aspx?pageID=238&nID=54227&NewsCatID=339