HRANT DINK MURDER TRIAL
Footage Lost - Complaint about Head of Anti-Terror Branch
Emsale Çakmakçı, witness of the murder of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, was heard before the 14th High Criminal Court in Istanbul for the first time at the hearing on Monday (30 May). The trial on the murder of journalist Dink has been pending for more than four years. Çakmakçı had previously given her only detailed statement at the Istanbul Police.
Çakmakçı stated that she saw a person with a white cap accompanied by two other individuals right after the murder at around 3.00 pm on 19 January 2007. The witness described the clothes, height and hair of these three people but she apparently was not able to see their faces.
"It seemed to me that they were walking together"
As a designer, Çakmakçı said she was in a shop to buy fabric close to the spot where the murder occurred. "It seemed to me that they were walking together but I was not able to see their faces. The police asked me to identify them but I told them that I did not recognize them" she claimed. A secret witness had given a similar statement before.
The 18th hearing of the case was attended by detained defendants Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal, both of whom stand accused of instigation to murder. The hearing was observed by writer Adalet Ağaoğlu, complainant Ufuk Uras and Levent Tüzel, Istanbul independent candidate of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block.
'Footage is lost; Kutkan is responsible'
The reply from Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) was the most crucial development of the Monday hearing. According to the report, the footage of the camera in a local bank branch at the scene of crime for the time of the murder cannot be restored.
Lawyer Fethiye Çetin, joint attorney of the Dink family, declared, "The part of the Akbank video records of the morning and the afternoon on the day of the incident is missing. The incident happened during the term of office of Selim Kutkan at the Anti-Terror Branch. The footage was lost. We file a criminal complaint about Kutkan".
Defendant Hayal requests protection
Defendant Yasin Hayal told Court President Rüstem Eryılmaz, "I am being disturbed by the residents in my neighbourhood. I am fed up. I am being beaten. The whole lot of Pelitli [district of Trabzon, Black Sea coast] is threatening me. They say 'We are going to strangle you and tear you into pieces'. I have no strength left to endure any longer. I want protection. I am being oppressed".
Tuncel: I am not in!
Plaintiff lawyer Hakan Bakırcıoğlu reminded what defendant Erhan Tuncel said to the Trabzon Police prior to the murder. Tuncel had stated, "I am not in if Dink is going to be killed. You are betting on the wrong horse". Laywer Bakırcıoğlu asked Tuncel whether he wanted to say that they should not turn a blind eye to this issue and Tuncel confirmed that.
After projecting the camera records of the day of the murder in the court room, Plaintiff lawyer Çetin assessed, "In our opinion, the person next to Samast is Osman Hayal". Hayal's lawyer Eda Salman on the other hand ridiculed Çetin's evaluation by saying, "And I think this person resembles Ahmet Kaya".
Tuncel's lawyer Erdoğan Soruklu referred to the words of Ahmet Samast, father of triggerman suspect Ogün Samast who had said, "The Gendarmerie commander knows where Samast is". In this context, he voiced their demands and particularly the request to determine the role of the gendarmerie in the murder. (EÖ/VK)