General Convicted for Defamation of Assassinated Hrant Dink

The Bakırköy 4th Court of First Instance in Istanbul adjudged Brigadier General Dursun Ali Karaduman from the Giresun Gendarmerie Regional Command on the eastern Black Sea Coast to pay 2,000 Turkish Lira (approximately € 900) in compensation for damages for mental anguish. Karaduman had targeted assassinated editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper Hrant Dink in a poem he read out at a soldier's funeral. Furthermore, he was quoted as saying at another soldier's funeral, "They even condemn it and raise their voices when a traitor is killed".

The Dink family symbolically set the amount of the compensation to 1 TL. Yet, in order to be able to hear the case the court raised it of 6,000 TL

"Dink family plans to donate compensation to Nezin Foundation"

Lawyer of the Dink family Deniz Tuna told bianet that the family partially accepted the amount claimed by the court and said that the family plans to donate the 2,000 TL decided by the court on 6 November to Nesin Foundation to support victims of the flood that hit parts of Istanbul in September this year.

Karaduman allegedly defamed Dink twice after the journalist had been assassinated on 19 January 2007. The first time he targeted Dink in a speech Karaduman made at a soldier's funeral on 9 April 2007. The second time he mentioned Dink's name to his disfavour in a poem he read out at another soldier's funeral on 20 June 2007.

The court found Karaduman guilty of attacking Dink's moral integrity on the grounds of his speech and his poem.

Hate speeches on 2 funerals

In his speech in April 2007 Karaduman said, "...the ones who panned this games and who was nominated for it must have been informed very well that the country and the nation of the Turkish Republic is an indivisible whole. Our fight will continue until there is not a single terrorist left. Today the American Senate, the French Parliament, the English House of Lords and the EU Parliament in Brussels have condemned the ones who killed you. They even condemn it and raise their voices when a traitor is killed. The immortal heroes who shed holy blood, who made this geography our homeland and who entrusted it with us; I condemn all the traitors and their supporters for you here today".

In June Karaduman implemented elements of hate into a poem he read at the funeral of soldier Kadir Aydın. He complained about the "world's indifference" and compared the situation of Aydın, who "carried a thoroughly original Turkish name" as Karaduman put it, with journalist Hrant Dink.

A total number of 20 defendants are tried before the 14th High Criminal Court in the context of the Dink murder., 8 gendarmerie officials of the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command are prosecuted under charges of "neglect of duty" because they did not prevent the murder despite referring information of the Intelligence Office prior to the assassination. (EÖ/VK)