HRANT DINK MURDER CASE

The National Intelligence Agency (MİT) replied to the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court in respect to the Hrant Dink murder trial. In the written response it was said that the warning of journalist Dink at the Istanbul Governorship prior to his murder had been carried out by a "semi-official appointment".

Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was called to the Istanbul Governorship after the Armenian weekly had published certain news in the issue dated 6 February 2004. These news items were related to Sabiha Gökçen, adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and first Turkish aviatrix, and a warning notice from the General Staff. Dink was warned at the governorship by the Deputy Governor of Istanbul, Ergun Güngör, and MİT officials.

After the meeting, Dink had said that 'they put him into place'. Muammer Güler, then Governor of Istanbul, did not reveal who was actually present at that meeting, not even at court did he give full particulars.

Çetin: Integrity of proceedings is not provided

bianet talked to Fethiye Çetin, joint lawyer of the Dink family, about the recent court decision that triggerman suspect Ogün Samast will be tried at the Sultanhamet Juvenile High Criminal Court.

"The judges at the Sultanahmet court are not the judges of the whole process. They are going to review 60 folders and then they will make their verdict in the absence of the other defendants. The most important principles of criminal proceedings is completeness and an evaluation considering the entire pieces of evidence. They will create a huge deficit".

IN a written statement, Çetin announced that they were going to apply for re-merging the file forwarded to the juvenile court with the case tired at the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court.

Files can be merged again in cased of indispensability

Lawyer Çetin opposes the decision to try Samast at a juvenile court which is based on Law No. 6008 on Amendments of the Anti-Terror Law. "In the current stage of the trial, crucial deficits will emerge in terms of completeness as one of the most important principles of criminal proceedings and also regarding rules of economy. It will furthermore cause great difficulty in revealing the concrete truth", Çetin argued.

Çetin put forward that Article 17/3 of the Child Protection Law (No. 5395) provided the possibility to re-merge Samast's file with the main trial.

Article 17/3 anticipates, "In case it is considered necessary that the trials [of juveniles and adults] be carried out together, general courts may decide, during any stage of the trial, for consolidation of trials, on the condition that such consolidation is found appropriate by the courts. In such an event, the joint cases shall be administered at general courts".

Rakel Dink: "You should be ashamed of the children throwing stones"

Samast will probably be exempt from an increase of punishment as stipulated in the Anti-Terror Law (TMY). In the current situation, Samast is facing a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and five months in case he should be convicted under charges of "membership of an illegal organization" and "murder".

Samast is benefiting from a legal amendment which was actually concerned with the prosecution of children "who threw stones" at demonstrations in the pre-dominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey. Rakel Dink, the wife of slain journalist Dink, voiced harsh criticism on the decision to try Samast at a juvenile court. After the hearing on 25 October, she told the journalists, "You should be ashamed of the children throwing stones". (EÖ/VK)