The Trabzon 2nd Heavy Penal Court has decided that Commander Colonel Ali Öz and five other soldiers shall be tried at the Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace for not preventing the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007.

Dink family lawyers have demanded that Öz and the other soldiers be brought to the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court, where the main Dink murder case is being heard, as suspects. However, they will now be tried at the Trabzon court. They stand accused of negligence rather than abusing their position.

Gendarmerie cases will probably be merged

Following the statements of two other gendarmerie officers, Sergeant Major Okan Şimşek and Sergeant Veysel Şahin, who are standing trial at the Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace Öz and five intelligence officers, Captain Metin Yıldız, Non-commissioned Officers Gazi Günay and Hüseyin Yılmaz, as well as Sergeants Hacı Ömer Ünalır and Önder Araz will be tried at the same court.

Their trial will begin on 6 May, and just like Şimşek and Şahin, they will be tried for negligence, facing between six months and two years imprisonment. It is expected that the two cases of the gendarmerie officers will be merged.

Meanwhile, the next hearing of the main murder court case in Istanbul will take place on 20 April. A total of twenty people, five of them detained, stand accused at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court. (EÖ/AG)