HRANT DINK MURDER CASE

The Trabzon 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court decided not to merge the file concerned with the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with the murder file in Istanbul. Eight gendarmerie officers stand trial at the court in Trabzon (eastern Black Sea coast) because they did not take any precautions to prevent the murder of Dink, then chief editor of the Armenian Agos newspaper, even though they had information on hand showing Dink as a target.

The Magistrate Court furthermore decided not to hear four informants from the gendarmerie who have not given any statements yet.

In the session on 16 April, the joint attorneys of the Dink family had one last time requested the prosecution of the responsible defendants based on article 83 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) on "intentional killing by negligent behaviour". The lawyers had emphasized that the negligence in Trabzon was the reason for the murder of Dink.

The hearing was attended by joint attorneys Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, Bahri Bayram Belen and Cem Halavurt and the defence lawyers of defendants Hacı Ömer Ünalır ve Ali Öz, Metin Yıldız, Okan Şimsek ve Veysel Şahin.

File will not be merged with murder file

The joint attorneys had requested the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court concerned with the murder file to get in touch with the court and investigate a possible merging of the files. The Trabzon 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court had decided for lack of jurisdiction at the beginning of the trial, but the High Criminal Court had dismissed that decision.

Another request was to take the statements of four informants working in the Trabzon district of Pelitli on behalf of the Trabzon Gendarmerie. The court heard two of altogether six gendarmerie officers in the hearing on 25 December and subsequently decided that there was no need to hear the remaining four officers. The Command had announced that three of them were still on duty.

Bakırcıoğlu: "Informants could have given additional information"

The Court declined all the above mentioned requests and ordered the joint attorneys to prepare their final speeches for the hearing on 31 May. Lawyer Bakırcıoğlu told bianet, "The informants would maybe have given additional information. However, we have made up our minds".

"The lawyers' understanding of "negligent" behaviour does not correspond to the society's concept of "negligence". It means that the public officials responsible for preventing the murder by law 'created the reason for a criminal offence by remaining passively'".

Bakırcıolğlu referred to an information record issued by the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command on 20 January 2007, one day after the murder. The notification form confirmed, "It is understood that Yasin Hayal, resident in the Pelitli Municipality of the city of Trabzon, organized the murder of Dink as a reaction to the comments Dink made against Turkey during the last months of his life". The notification form was signed by Ali Öz, Metin Yıldız and Gazi Güney. Lawyer Bakrıcıoğlu claimed that the crime of negligence was committed intentionally.

Dink's murder came from Pelitli

Despite information obtained one year earlier on a planned attack against Agos newspaper founder Dink, Ogün Samast came from Pelitli to Istanbul and killed Dink in front of his office in Şişli on 19 January 2007.

Former Trabzon Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Öz, intelligence branch officials Captain Metin Yıldız, military officers Gazi Günay and Hüseyin Yılmaz, Command Sergeant Major Okan Şimşek, Special Sergeants Veysel Şahin, Hacı Ömer Ünalır and Önder Araz are facing prison sentences of up to two years on the grounds of "negligence". (EÖ/VK)