Student Making Death Threat in Court

Necati Abay, publisher and spokesperson for the Platform of Soldarity with Imprisoned Journalists, had written an article entitled “Another Journalist Has Been Murdered, the ‘Good Kids’ killed Hrant Dink” on the eve of Hrant Dink’s murder on 19 January.

Sahin: "Nationalist feelings aroused"

Following the article, 20-year-old Mert Sahin had threatened him with death. Sahin was then a student in Akyazi, in the province of Sakarya, east of Istanbul. At the hearing, Sahin said that he did not know Necati Abay: “The statement that Abay made after Hrant Dink’s murder was sent to me by people I do not know and they demanded that I react to the statement. With my nationalist feelings aroused at the time, I reacted, but my aim was not to threaten.”

"Your fate will be the same" 

 Abay had received a threatening email the day after Hrant Dink’s murder, coming from the email adres meksikali87@hotmail.com. The mail said, “If you continue to inform the public by accusing such nationalists, your fate will be the same.”

The first hearing of the case took place on 30 October at the Sultanahmet 8th Penal Court (Istanbul) . Abay and his lawyer Gülüzar Tuncer, and Mert Sahin, who is being tried without detention, were present.

 Lawyer Tuncer has demanded that the defendant be tried under Articles 106/2-d and 115 for “benefiting the fear created by criminal organisations which exist or are believe to exist in order to threaten someone” and “obstructing the freedom of belief, thought and convictions”. She called for a sentence of between three and eight years.

 The court said that the Sultanahment Public Prosecution had to decide on the sentence and postponed the hearing until 6 February 2008.

Abay: "The system needs to be tried"

Abay made a statement in front of court after the hearing, saying: “Whatever O.S., the murder suspect of Hrant Dink is, Mert Sahin who threatened me is the same. They are both ‘good kids’. [Here Abay is referring to an utterance by now-Chief of Staff Yasar Büyükanit who defended two officers being tried for the bombing of a bookshop in Semdinli by calling them ‘good kids’.] It is not enough to try OS. and the Mert Sahins, the system which feeds them needs to be tried.”

Istanbul Public Prosecutor Abdülaziz Özaslan prepared an indictment on 19 June, in which he charged the defendant under Article 106/2-b and demanded between two and five years imprisonment. The charge is “hiding ones identity and threatening someone with an anonymous letter or special signs.” (EÖ/AG)