HRANT DINK TRIAL

Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Ali Öz and Captain Metin Yıldız were sentenced to imprisonment of six months each in the context of the murder of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. The 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court of Trabzon (eastern Black Sea coast) found both defendants guilty of negligence of duty. The court held that they failed to take the necessary precautions prior the murder.

Prison terms of four months each were handed down by the Trabzon court to Expert Gendarmerie Senior Sergeant Veysel Şahin, Gendarmerie Sergeant Major Okan Şimşek and gendarmerie officers Hüseyin Yılmaz and Hacı Ömer Ünaldı. Another two defendants tried in the scope of the same case tried on 2 June were acquitted.

The court decreed not to suspend the sentence and not to postpone the pronouncement of judgement. This procedure means that the convicts will have to serve two thirds of their sentences once the decision will have been approved by the superior court.

Lawyer Cem Halavurt, joint attorney of the family of slain journalist Dink, made a statement to bianet after the hearing. He criticized, "We said it was intent but they were prosecuted on charges of negligence. The sentences are at the upper limit of what a magistrate court is entitled to decide. If only had they been prosecuted at a high criminal court. Still, we appreciate the decision because it proves that public officials did have a responsibility in the murder of Hrant Dink". (HK/VK)