The Ministry of Justice did not grant permission for the trial of Erdal Doğan, one of the lawyers of Dink’s family. The lawyer was accused of leaking the closed session details information and the bone age of murder suspect Ogün Samast.

“The goal was to prevent me from doing my job”

Submitting a petition to the Ministerial Bureau of the Office of the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor on July 1, Doğan had objected the attempt to file a lawsuit against him by stating that not only the complaint had consisted of abstract suspicions and allegations not provable legally, but the actual goal was to prevent him from doing his job.

Since murder suspect Ogün Samast was seventeen when he murdered Hrant Dink, the trial was closed to the media until July 7, 2008.

The journalists were following the trial from the developments taking place outside of the court. As Samast became eighteen, the trial became accessible to the media.

Lawyer Doğan was accused of leaking the report that stated Ogün Samast could have been 19 at the time of the murder according to his bone age estimation.

The complaint was made by Samast’s lawyer Levent Yıldırım, who had asked for the punishment of Doğan for leaking the closed session details of the trial.

The trial of the murder of Hrant Dibk will continue on January 26, 2009. (EÖ/TB)