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TURKEY TO HOLD RETRIAL IN MURDER OF TURK ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Agence France Presse
September 16, 2013 Monday 6:10 PM GMT
ISTANBUL, Sept 16 2013
The man accused of instigating the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey, along with 18 other suspects, will
go back to court on Tuesday after an earlier verdict was overturned.
A hearing on the retrial will take place at a high criminal court in
Istanbul where a large crowd is expected to gather to pay tribute
and demand justice for Dink, who was a leading member of Turkey's
tiny Armenian community, Garo Paylan of the Association of Friends
of Hrant Dink told AFP.
Dink, 52, was shot dead in broad daylight outside the offices of his
bilingual weekly newspaper Agos, sending shock waves across Turkey
and triggering a wider scandal after reports that state security
forces had known of the murder plot, but failed to act.
An Istanbul court in 2011 had sentenced Dink's self-confessed killer
Ogun Samast, who was tried separately as he was juvenile at the time,
to 23 years in jail.
A year later, the court sentenced the so-called mastermind of the
murder, Yasin Hayal, to life imprisonment for inciting the killing
but acquitted 18 other defendants, ruling that there was no conspiracy.
In May, Turkey's appeals court partially overturned the 2012 verdict.
It upheld the conviction for Hayal but ordered a retrial to look into
whether Hayal and the other 18 acquitted defendants belonged to a
criminal network.
>From the onset, Dink's lawyers had demanded a new investigation
and a retrial to determine if there was a conspiracy behind the
journalist's killing.
The appeals court in May acknowledged that there was a conspiracy
behind the murder but stopped short of launching a deeper investigation
into the potential involvement of Turkey's powerful institutions.
Dink's lawyers and human rights defenders believe that those behind
the murder were protected by the state because Dink had received
threats for a long time before he was killed, often writing about
them in his columns published in Agos.
Every year since Dink's murder on January 19, 2007, thousands have
gathered in front of the Agos offices on that date to remember the
journalist, whose life-long campaign for reconciliation between Turks
and Armenians won him as many enemies as admirers.
nc-fo/boc
From: Baghdasarian
Agence France Presse
September 16, 2013 Monday 6:10 PM GMT
ISTANBUL, Sept 16 2013
The man accused of instigating the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey, along with 18 other suspects, will
go back to court on Tuesday after an earlier verdict was overturned.
A hearing on the retrial will take place at a high criminal court in
Istanbul where a large crowd is expected to gather to pay tribute
and demand justice for Dink, who was a leading member of Turkey's
tiny Armenian community, Garo Paylan of the Association of Friends
of Hrant Dink told AFP.
Dink, 52, was shot dead in broad daylight outside the offices of his
bilingual weekly newspaper Agos, sending shock waves across Turkey
and triggering a wider scandal after reports that state security
forces had known of the murder plot, but failed to act.
An Istanbul court in 2011 had sentenced Dink's self-confessed killer
Ogun Samast, who was tried separately as he was juvenile at the time,
to 23 years in jail.
A year later, the court sentenced the so-called mastermind of the
murder, Yasin Hayal, to life imprisonment for inciting the killing
but acquitted 18 other defendants, ruling that there was no conspiracy.
In May, Turkey's appeals court partially overturned the 2012 verdict.
It upheld the conviction for Hayal but ordered a retrial to look into
whether Hayal and the other 18 acquitted defendants belonged to a
criminal network.
>From the onset, Dink's lawyers had demanded a new investigation
and a retrial to determine if there was a conspiracy behind the
journalist's killing.
The appeals court in May acknowledged that there was a conspiracy
behind the murder but stopped short of launching a deeper investigation
into the potential involvement of Turkey's powerful institutions.
Dink's lawyers and human rights defenders believe that those behind
the murder were protected by the state because Dink had received
threats for a long time before he was killed, often writing about
them in his columns published in Agos.
Every year since Dink's murder on January 19, 2007, thousands have
gathered in front of the Agos offices on that date to remember the
journalist, whose life-long campaign for reconciliation between Turks
and Armenians won him as many enemies as admirers.
nc-fo/boc
From: Baghdasarian