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HRANT DINK TRIAL SUSPECT ERHAN TUNCEL RELEASED
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 7 2014
A Turkish court released Erhan Tuncel on Friday, who had previously
been acquitted of all charges related to the 2007 killing of Hrant
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
but was then arrested during the retrial of the murder case.
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court began a review of the trial
late last year after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the
İstanbul court's ruling from Jan. 17, 2012, which had dismissed the
involvement of an organized criminal network in the murder.
Tuncel was released as part of a bill reducing the maximum period of
arrest to five years, which was signed into law by President Abdullah
Gul on Thursday night. The court ruled that Tuncel's detention period
as a suspect had exceeded the maximum, as he had been under arrest
for five years and five months.
Tuncel, who worked as an informant for the Trabzon Police Department,
was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the 2004 bombing
of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea town of Trabzon but was
acquitted of all charges relating to the Dink murder, including
prosecutors' claims in the first trial that he was the one who
had ordered Yasin Hayal, the man who was given a life sentence for
soliciting Dink's shooter, to murder him.
Tuncel, along with all the other defendants, were cleared of membership
of a terrorist organization in an earlier ruling of a local court.
Dink was shot and killed in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
İstanbul. Evidence discovered since then has led to claims that the
murder was linked to the "deep state," a term referring to a shadowy
group of military and civilian bureaucrats believed to have links
with organized crime.
Zirve murder suspects might be released as well
The amendment limiting the maximum period of arrest to five years is
likely to affect another prominent court case concerning the murder
of three Christian missionaries in a Malatya publishing house in 2007.
Lawyers representing two key suspects, Emre Gunaydın and Cuma Ozdemir,
submitted petitions to the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court demanding
their clients be released pending trial. The court, which has reached
the final stage of the trial, is expected to release Gunaydın and
Ozdemir.
On April 18, 2007, Christian missionaries Necati Aydın, Ugur Yuksel
and German national Tilmann Geske were tied to their chairs, stabbed
and tortured at the Zirve Publishing House in the southeastern
Anatolian city of Malatya before their throats were slit. The
publishing house printed Bibles and Christian literature. Suspects
Abuzer Yıldırım, Ozdemir, Salih Gurler and Hamit Ceker were
apprehended at the scene and immediately taken into custody, while
the other suspect, Gunaydın, jumped from a third-storey window in
an attempt to escape from police and was taken into custody after
being treated for his injuries.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-341497-hrant-dink-trial-suspect-erhan-tuncel-released.html
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 7 2014
A Turkish court released Erhan Tuncel on Friday, who had previously
been acquitted of all charges related to the 2007 killing of Hrant
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
but was then arrested during the retrial of the murder case.
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court began a review of the trial
late last year after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the
İstanbul court's ruling from Jan. 17, 2012, which had dismissed the
involvement of an organized criminal network in the murder.
Tuncel was released as part of a bill reducing the maximum period of
arrest to five years, which was signed into law by President Abdullah
Gul on Thursday night. The court ruled that Tuncel's detention period
as a suspect had exceeded the maximum, as he had been under arrest
for five years and five months.
Tuncel, who worked as an informant for the Trabzon Police Department,
was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the 2004 bombing
of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea town of Trabzon but was
acquitted of all charges relating to the Dink murder, including
prosecutors' claims in the first trial that he was the one who
had ordered Yasin Hayal, the man who was given a life sentence for
soliciting Dink's shooter, to murder him.
Tuncel, along with all the other defendants, were cleared of membership
of a terrorist organization in an earlier ruling of a local court.
Dink was shot and killed in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
İstanbul. Evidence discovered since then has led to claims that the
murder was linked to the "deep state," a term referring to a shadowy
group of military and civilian bureaucrats believed to have links
with organized crime.
Zirve murder suspects might be released as well
The amendment limiting the maximum period of arrest to five years is
likely to affect another prominent court case concerning the murder
of three Christian missionaries in a Malatya publishing house in 2007.
Lawyers representing two key suspects, Emre Gunaydın and Cuma Ozdemir,
submitted petitions to the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court demanding
their clients be released pending trial. The court, which has reached
the final stage of the trial, is expected to release Gunaydın and
Ozdemir.
On April 18, 2007, Christian missionaries Necati Aydın, Ugur Yuksel
and German national Tilmann Geske were tied to their chairs, stabbed
and tortured at the Zirve Publishing House in the southeastern
Anatolian city of Malatya before their throats were slit. The
publishing house printed Bibles and Christian literature. Suspects
Abuzer Yıldırım, Ozdemir, Salih Gurler and Hamit Ceker were
apprehended at the scene and immediately taken into custody, while
the other suspect, Gunaydın, jumped from a third-storey window in
an attempt to escape from police and was taken into custody after
being treated for his injuries.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-341497-hrant-dink-trial-suspect-erhan-tuncel-released.html