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HRANT DINK'S GUNMAN ACCUSES TWO FORMER POLICE CHIEFS OF MURDER
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 10 2014
ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency
Ogun Samast, the triggerman who shot Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink dead almost eight years ago, has claimed that two former police
chiefs are responsible for Dink's murder.
Samast, who had sent a letter to the prosecutor in charge of the
investigation of Dink's murder saying he wanted to "speak up" on Nov.
17, testified on Dec. 5 as a "witness."
He accused Ramazan Akyurek, then-police chief of Trabzon, and Ali
Fuat Yılmazer, then-Istanbul police intelligence chief, of being
behind the murder.
"They made me do the assassination. Yasin [Hayal] is taking the blame
and saying, 'I did it,' but he isn't saying the names behind it. If my
words are investigated, the people behind [the murder] will be found.
The truth will be found if the relations between the policemen,
whose registration numbers I gave, Akyurek, Yılmazer and other
individuals whose names are in the court file, are investigated"
Samast said in his testimony to Istanbul prosecutor Yusuf Dogan.
Dink was assassinated by Samast in broad daylight on a busy street
outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in
Istanbul's Å~^iÅ~_li district on Jan. 19, 2007. The assassination
caused outrage across the country, sending hundreds of thousands to
the streets in mass rallies.
Samast, who is serving 22 years and 10 months in the high-security
F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli, said he met Hayal, who is serving
an aggravated life sentence, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. He
said he met Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant who was released
pending trial, through Hayal.
"Hayal brought me to Tuncel's house [before the murder] and I overheard
them speaking. Erhan and Yasin were talking about the incident. I
started listening when Erhan said 'Ramazan Akyurek and Fuat the
manager.' Yasin said 'then our backs are safe.' When we left the
house, I told Yasin 'I know Ramazan Akyurek, he administered here in
Trabzon, but who is Fuat?' Yasin answered by saying 'they are Erhan's
acquaintances,'" said Samast.
He added that Hayal had said Akyurek and even the Istanbul chief of
police at the time knew about the incident and were all behind it.
"Think, the job is big, you will be a hero. I will put you into a
lot of trouble if you bail out," Samast quoted Hayal as saying.
The investigation into Dink's murder case took a different path after
the government launched a fight against the so-called "parallel
structure," which the government uses to refer to the movement of
U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen. The Justice Ministry
cleared the way for investigations into nine civil servants accused
of negligence in Dink's murder.
The government started the fight against the "parallel structure"
after two graft probes into around 100 people - including four former
ministers, their sons, Azeri-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, former
manager of state-run Halkbank and a construction tycoon - was launched
in December 2013, marking Turkey's biggest ever corruption case.
December/10/2014
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hrant-dinks-gunman-accuses-two-former-police-chiefs-of-murder-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75455&NewsCatID=509
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 10 2014
ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency
Ogun Samast, the triggerman who shot Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink dead almost eight years ago, has claimed that two former police
chiefs are responsible for Dink's murder.
Samast, who had sent a letter to the prosecutor in charge of the
investigation of Dink's murder saying he wanted to "speak up" on Nov.
17, testified on Dec. 5 as a "witness."
He accused Ramazan Akyurek, then-police chief of Trabzon, and Ali
Fuat Yılmazer, then-Istanbul police intelligence chief, of being
behind the murder.
"They made me do the assassination. Yasin [Hayal] is taking the blame
and saying, 'I did it,' but he isn't saying the names behind it. If my
words are investigated, the people behind [the murder] will be found.
The truth will be found if the relations between the policemen,
whose registration numbers I gave, Akyurek, Yılmazer and other
individuals whose names are in the court file, are investigated"
Samast said in his testimony to Istanbul prosecutor Yusuf Dogan.
Dink was assassinated by Samast in broad daylight on a busy street
outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in
Istanbul's Å~^iÅ~_li district on Jan. 19, 2007. The assassination
caused outrage across the country, sending hundreds of thousands to
the streets in mass rallies.
Samast, who is serving 22 years and 10 months in the high-security
F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli, said he met Hayal, who is serving
an aggravated life sentence, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. He
said he met Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant who was released
pending trial, through Hayal.
"Hayal brought me to Tuncel's house [before the murder] and I overheard
them speaking. Erhan and Yasin were talking about the incident. I
started listening when Erhan said 'Ramazan Akyurek and Fuat the
manager.' Yasin said 'then our backs are safe.' When we left the
house, I told Yasin 'I know Ramazan Akyurek, he administered here in
Trabzon, but who is Fuat?' Yasin answered by saying 'they are Erhan's
acquaintances,'" said Samast.
He added that Hayal had said Akyurek and even the Istanbul chief of
police at the time knew about the incident and were all behind it.
"Think, the job is big, you will be a hero. I will put you into a
lot of trouble if you bail out," Samast quoted Hayal as saying.
The investigation into Dink's murder case took a different path after
the government launched a fight against the so-called "parallel
structure," which the government uses to refer to the movement of
U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen. The Justice Ministry
cleared the way for investigations into nine civil servants accused
of negligence in Dink's murder.
The government started the fight against the "parallel structure"
after two graft probes into around 100 people - including four former
ministers, their sons, Azeri-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, former
manager of state-run Halkbank and a construction tycoon - was launched
in December 2013, marking Turkey's biggest ever corruption case.
December/10/2014
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hrant-dinks-gunman-accuses-two-former-police-chiefs-of-murder-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=75455&NewsCatID=509