HRANT DINK MURDER

Vatan newspaper journalist Kemal Göktaş is facing a five years prison sentence at the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance by reason of his book entitled "The Hrant Dink Murder: Media, Judiciary, State". The book reveals background information on the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

Göktaş was supported in yesterday's hearing (16 February) at the Istanbul Sultanahmet Courthouse by Milliyet newspaper journalist Nedim Şener. Şener himself is facing 32.5 years imprisonment for his book which also deals with the Dink murder.

Şener told bianet, "I am not here to support the political power but to support the invariable victims. It will be my duty to defend Akyürek's rights if he is in fact a victim or treated unjust".

Lawyer Aydın: Case should be dropped by prescription

Journalist Göktaş was furthermore supported by human rights activists Özlem Dalkıran and Füsun Çelikel and by Ani Aba and Takuş Kalk from the "Group of Hrant's Friends".

Lawyer Filiz Aydın requested to drop the case by prescription, referring to the statute of limitation of the case initially filed by Intelligence Office President Ramazan Akyürek and the Police General Directorate:

"The case should be rejected because it is time-barred. The case was opened on 30 September 2009. Yet, the prescription period of four months ran out on 24 August 2009. We will forward further requests later on".

The case was postponed to 11 May to hear prosecutor Atilla Ayvacı's evaluation of the statute of limitation of the file in the next session. Göktaş is put on trial on the grounds of publishing an F4 document in his book which was sent from the Trabzon Police Directorate to the Istanbul Intelligence Branch Directorate, concerned with Yasin Hayal being up to "an influential action" related to Hrant Dink. (EÖ/VK)