Police Investigates Osman Hayal 19 Months After Dink’s Murder

Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court asked for additional time to keep Osman Hayal in custody in connection with the murder of Hrant Dink. Osman Hayal is brother of the alleged instigator of the murder case, Yasin Hayal.

Osman Hayal was brought to Istanbul from Tarabzon’s Pelitli region two days ago on August 20. He was confronted with the eye witnesses and will be taken to the court after his initial questioning at the Polic Department is completed (August 23). 

Cinmen: If all the responsible parties not punished then the murder will stay as an unsolved murder

Commenting about the latest developments to the NTV, Ergin Cinmen, one of the lawyers of the Dink Family, said that the findings that had shown Osman Hayal’s telephone had been giving a signal from Istanbul on the day of the murder need to be investigated thoroughly.

Moreover, Cinmen stated that if all those parties in Istanbul and Trabzon Police Departments, Trabzon Gendarmerie, and the Police Intelligent Department were not punished for their responsibility and negligence in the murder, then the case would stay as an unsolved murder.

Osman Hayal had claimed that he was in Trabzon on the day of the murder, but his telephone had given signal from Kısıklı, Istanbul on the same day. The reports in the media had also claimed that Osman Hayal was in Istanbul on the day of the murder. Osman Hayal had been denying this so far.

“The real perpetrators are outside, find them”

Osman Hayal had reacted in the statement he had given to the Trabzon newspaper İlkbahar on January 2008 to the reports that had appeared in the media that he was in Istanbul on the day of the murder. He had defended himself using Rakel Dink’s words “Those who make murderers out of babies”.

“Enough, I wish they do not mess with us anymore. They are trying to distort it. The real perpetrators are outside. Have them find the real perpetrator who makes murderers out of babies.”

Police took Osman Hayal into custody after nineteen months

The images broadcasted by Show TV a while ago had shown an individual talking on his phone with his back turned to the Agos building and looking occasionally at someone near the building. Later, the same person is seen watching, with another individual, Ogün Samast’s running away from the scene and they too disappear in a construction site.

The identities of these people are still not known. The police is looking into the possibility that whether or not Osman Hayal might have accompanied the actual shooter, Ogün Samast, on the day of the murder, January 19, 2007. They are looking agains at the security cameras of the bank near the murder scene. (EÖ/EZÖ/TB)