Trabzon’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office submitted the indictment for the six gendarme officials who are accused of neglect in the murder of Hrant Dink.

After the statements of gendarme petty officers Okan Şimşek and Veysel Şahin, who are on trial at the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance of Trabzon, the authorities completed the investigation about the five gendarme officials, including Colonel Ali Öz.

If the indictment sent by the Chief Prosecutor to the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance is accepted, then Colonel Ali Öz, Captain Metin Yıldız and gendarme officials Önder Aras, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Hacı Ömer Ünaldı and Gazi Günay will be tried for “the brach of duty”, facing two years in prison.

The Inspection Committee of the Prime Ministry: There is neglect at every level

On November 12, the news channel NTV had announced the findings of the Inspection Committee of the Prime Ministry about the case.

The report had stated that both the gendarme and the police had not taken any measures to stop the murder from taking place, even though they had the intelligence about it, and had demanded an investigation about those responsible for this neglect.

İğci admitted and the facts came out

During their depositions at the 2nd Criminal Court of Peace of Trabzon on March 20, chief master sergeant Okan Şimşek and master sergeant Veysel Şahin had told that they had received the information that Dink was going to be murdered from Coşkun İğci and conveyed it to the Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Öz. Coşkun İğci, Yasin Hayal’s brother-in-law, who is on trial as one of the instigators of the murder, was the gendarme informant at the time.

The two suspects had admitted  they had already known that Yasin Hayal, one of the instigators in the Dink murder, had come to Istanbul to research on Hrant Dink and his newspaper”Agos” in July 2006. Therefore, Trabzon’s Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation against Colonel Öz and the Trabzon Governorship had given permission for an administrative investigation about Öz.

Öz’s attempt to stop the investigation had failed and most recently, Trabzon’s Administrative Court had rejected Öz’s objection.

Öz’s file went to the ECHR

Dink family had gone to the EHRC in December 2007 on the grounds that only Okan Şimşek and Veysel Şahin were on trial from Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie, but Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Öz and the other high level officials were kept outside the trial process.  

The next hearing on January 26

The next hearing of the murder case in which twenty people are on trial will be at the 14th High Criminal Court of İstanbul on January 26, 2009. (EÖ/TB)