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TURKEY BEGINS RETRIAL OVER MURDER OF ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Agence France Presse -- English
September 17, 2013 Tuesday 3:47 PM GMT
ISTANBUL, Sept 17 2013
A court in Istanbul began a retrial on Tuesday over the murder of an
ethnic Armenian journalist, a case that has gripped the nation for
years and sparked accusations of state conspiracy.
Hrant Dink, who incurred the wrath of Turkish nationalists for calling
the World War I massacre of Armenians a genocide, was shot dead in
broad daylight in 2007 outside the offices of his bilingual weekly
newspaper Agos.
The killing of the 52-year-old sent shock waves across Turkey and
triggered a wider scandal after reports that state security forces
had known of the murder plot but failed to act.
An Istanbul court in 2011 sentenced Dink's self-confessed killer Ogun
Samast to 23 years in jail. He was tried as a juvenile as he was only
17 at the time of the murder.
A year later, the court sentenced the so-called mastermind of the
murder, Yasin Hayal, to life in prison 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 he and another 18 acquitted defendants belonged to a
criminal network.
Hayal and another seven of the defendants were being retried.
Hayal, who was the only defendant to attend Tuesday's hearing,
criticised the appeals court's decision. "I did not found or head a
criminal organisation," he said.
>From the outset, 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 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 in Agos.
At Tuesday's first hearing Dink's lawyers called on the judges
to especially look into the possible implication of police and
paramilitary police.
"If you follow the ruling of the highest appeals court, all these
blanks in the investigation must be looked at," said lawyer Bahri
Bayram Belen.
The names of the seven other suspects were not known to the public.
The next hearing will be held on December 3 giving all suspects time
to comment on the appeals court decision.
At the request of the prosecution the court on Tuesday ordered the
re-arrest of one of the acquitted suspects, Erhan Tuncel. He had
told the court during his earlier trial that he was an informer of
the paramilitary police.
Prosecutors now say they have new evidence in his case.
"Hrant Dink was killed... with instructions from public agents. The
state will continue to protect those public agents," Gulten Kaya of
the Association of Friends of Hrant Dink said outside the courthouse.
'We are all Armenians'
"The picture is clear... It is possible that the instigator and
its comrades will be sentenced for forming a gang," she said while
claiming that the real conspirators behind the murder would get away
with the crime and even get promoted.
"The trial... will bring no justice."
Dink's family said they would no longer attend any hearings as the
court "spurns legal rights, fairness and honesty".
A crowd of about 150 people, including three MPs from the pro-Kurdish
Peace and Democracy Party and two opposition Social Democratic
deputies, gathered outside the courthouse, chanting: "We are all Hrant,
we are all Armenians", "For Hrant, for Justice" and "Stop this mock
trial, try those really responsible".
Every year since Dink's murder on January 19, 2007, thousands have
gathered outside 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.
Turkish nationalists especially resented that he qualified the
massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the final years
of the Ottoman empire, Turkey's precursor, a genocide, a term Ankara
has always rejected.
nc-fo/gk/lc
Agence France Presse -- English
September 17, 2013 Tuesday 3:47 PM GMT
ISTANBUL, Sept 17 2013
A court in Istanbul began a retrial on Tuesday over the murder of an
ethnic Armenian journalist, a case that has gripped the nation for
years and sparked accusations of state conspiracy.
Hrant Dink, who incurred the wrath of Turkish nationalists for calling
the World War I massacre of Armenians a genocide, was shot dead in
broad daylight in 2007 outside the offices of his bilingual weekly
newspaper Agos.
The killing of the 52-year-old sent shock waves across Turkey and
triggered a wider scandal after reports that state security forces
had known of the murder plot but failed to act.
An Istanbul court in 2011 sentenced Dink's self-confessed killer Ogun
Samast to 23 years in jail. He was tried as a juvenile as he was only
17 at the time of the murder.
A year later, the court sentenced the so-called mastermind of the
murder, Yasin Hayal, to life in prison 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 he and another 18 acquitted defendants belonged to a
criminal network.
Hayal and another seven of the defendants were being retried.
Hayal, who was the only defendant to attend Tuesday's hearing,
criticised the appeals court's decision. "I did not found or head a
criminal organisation," he said.
>From the outset, 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 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 in Agos.
At Tuesday's first hearing Dink's lawyers called on the judges
to especially look into the possible implication of police and
paramilitary police.
"If you follow the ruling of the highest appeals court, all these
blanks in the investigation must be looked at," said lawyer Bahri
Bayram Belen.
The names of the seven other suspects were not known to the public.
The next hearing will be held on December 3 giving all suspects time
to comment on the appeals court decision.
At the request of the prosecution the court on Tuesday ordered the
re-arrest of one of the acquitted suspects, Erhan Tuncel. He had
told the court during his earlier trial that he was an informer of
the paramilitary police.
Prosecutors now say they have new evidence in his case.
"Hrant Dink was killed... with instructions from public agents. The
state will continue to protect those public agents," Gulten Kaya of
the Association of Friends of Hrant Dink said outside the courthouse.
'We are all Armenians'
"The picture is clear... It is possible that the instigator and
its comrades will be sentenced for forming a gang," she said while
claiming that the real conspirators behind the murder would get away
with the crime and even get promoted.
"The trial... will bring no justice."
Dink's family said they would no longer attend any hearings as the
court "spurns legal rights, fairness and honesty".
A crowd of about 150 people, including three MPs from the pro-Kurdish
Peace and Democracy Party and two opposition Social Democratic
deputies, gathered outside the courthouse, chanting: "We are all Hrant,
we are all Armenians", "For Hrant, for Justice" and "Stop this mock
trial, try those really responsible".
Every year since Dink's murder on January 19, 2007, thousands have
gathered outside 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.
Turkish nationalists especially resented that he qualified the
massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the final years
of the Ottoman empire, Turkey's precursor, a genocide, a term Ankara
has always rejected.
nc-fo/gk/lc