Tweet
FORMER ISTANBUL POLICE CHIEF SUMMONED TO TESTIFY IN DINK MURDER TRIAL
Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
November 6, 2014 Thursday
Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- Former Ä°stanbul Police Chief Celalettin
Cerrah has been summoned to testify in the trial into the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a Dink family lawyer
has stated.
Dink was assassinated in broad daylight outside the office of his
Agos newspaper on Jan. 17, 2007.
Hakan Bakırcıoglu, one of the family's lawyers, told the Cihan
news agency that Cerrah and several other public officials have been
summoned to testify in the trial.
Nine public officials, including former Ä°stanbul Deputy Governor
Ergun Gungör and Cerrah, are facing an investigation on charges of
negligence in Dink's murder.
The lawyers of Dink's family filed a complaint in 2011 with the
İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Gungör; Cerrah; the
former chief of the Ä°stanbul Police Department's intelligence unit,
Ahmet İlhan Gungör; and six other police officers on the grounds
that those public officials were negligent because they failed to
prevent Dink's murder.
After the complaint, the chief public prosecutor's office applied to
the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office to ask for permission to investigate
those listed public officials. However, the governor's office did not
give this permission to the prosecutor's office. After the governor's
office's decision, the prosecutors decided not to prosecute.
However, the Dink family filed an appeal with the Bakırköy 8th High
Criminal Court to annul the decision not to prosecute. On May 21 of
this year, the Bakırköy court decided to cancel the prosecutor's
office's decision not to prosecute.
After the decision of the high criminal court, the Ä°stanbul Chief
Public Prosecutor's Office applied to the Justice Ministry, requesting
that the Supreme Court of Appeals' Chief Public Prosecutor's Office
appeal the verdict of the Bakırköy 8th High Criminal Court's.
The Justice Ministry rejected this request, opening the way for an
investigation into the public officials against whom the Dink family
originally filed the criminal complaint.
Dink was shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager seven years
ago. The hit man, Ogun Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial.
During this time, the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs
in the case presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act
alone. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for
inciting Samast to murder. However, Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an
informant for the Trabzon Police Department and was the man accused
of initiating the effort to have Dink murdered, was found not guilty
of the murder.
From: Baghdasarian
Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
November 6, 2014 Thursday
Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- Former Ä°stanbul Police Chief Celalettin
Cerrah has been summoned to testify in the trial into the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a Dink family lawyer
has stated.
Dink was assassinated in broad daylight outside the office of his
Agos newspaper on Jan. 17, 2007.
Hakan Bakırcıoglu, one of the family's lawyers, told the Cihan
news agency that Cerrah and several other public officials have been
summoned to testify in the trial.
Nine public officials, including former Ä°stanbul Deputy Governor
Ergun Gungör and Cerrah, are facing an investigation on charges of
negligence in Dink's murder.
The lawyers of Dink's family filed a complaint in 2011 with the
İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Gungör; Cerrah; the
former chief of the Ä°stanbul Police Department's intelligence unit,
Ahmet İlhan Gungör; and six other police officers on the grounds
that those public officials were negligent because they failed to
prevent Dink's murder.
After the complaint, the chief public prosecutor's office applied to
the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office to ask for permission to investigate
those listed public officials. However, the governor's office did not
give this permission to the prosecutor's office. After the governor's
office's decision, the prosecutors decided not to prosecute.
However, the Dink family filed an appeal with the Bakırköy 8th High
Criminal Court to annul the decision not to prosecute. On May 21 of
this year, the Bakırköy court decided to cancel the prosecutor's
office's decision not to prosecute.
After the decision of the high criminal court, the Ä°stanbul Chief
Public Prosecutor's Office applied to the Justice Ministry, requesting
that the Supreme Court of Appeals' Chief Public Prosecutor's Office
appeal the verdict of the Bakırköy 8th High Criminal Court's.
The Justice Ministry rejected this request, opening the way for an
investigation into the public officials against whom the Dink family
originally filed the criminal complaint.
Dink was shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager seven years
ago. The hit man, Ogun Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial.
During this time, the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs
in the case presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act
alone. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for
inciting Samast to murder. However, Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an
informant for the Trabzon Police Department and was the man accused
of initiating the effort to have Dink murdered, was found not guilty
of the murder.
From: Baghdasarian