DINK MURDER CAN’T BE TREATED LIKE REGULAR CRIME, POLITICIANS SAY
Today’s Zaman
Jan 20 2012
Turkey
The final verdict in the five-year-long Hrant Dink murder trial, which
established that the suspects had no ties to a larger crime network
but acted alone, cannot be true, more politicians and commentators
continued to assert on Friday.
In a related note, the prosecutor in the court case concerning the
2007 killing of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink slammed the
judge hearing the trial for failing to deliver a fair decision amid
growing outrage over a trial many feel has failed to shed light on
alleged official negligence or even collusion. The judge presiding
over the 14th Ä°stanbul High Criminal Court sentenced Yasin Hayal
to life imprisonment and acquitted 19 defendants charged with being
part of a terrorist group. A juvenile court sentenced Dink’s assassin,
Ogun Samast, to 22 years, 10 months in jail last July. He was 17 when
he committed the murder.
Prosecutor Hikmet Usta said in a two-page long petition as part
of his appeal of the verdict, which was delivered on Tuesday, that
there was sufficient evidence to establish the murder was the result
of efforts by an organized criminal group. The prosecutor’s comments
came in response to presiding judge Rustem Eryılmaz’s earlier remarks
published in Vatan daily Thursday.
The judge had commented that while he personally cannot deny the murder
was the work of an organized network, the evidence submitted to the
court was not sufficient to issue such a ruling. In his petition,
Usta acknowledged that judges are independent in delivering decisions.
However, he dismissed Eryılmaz’s argument that there was not enough
evidence to establish the involvement of an organized criminal network.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also commented on the case on
Friday, expressing his hope that the Supreme Court of Appeals “will
clear up any doubts” with regards to the Dink murder trial.
“The [trial] process has not been completed yet; it is in the appeals
phase. I hope the judiciary will clear up doubts during the appeals
process and take steps that will ease the public’s conscience,”
Erdogan said in Ankara during the launch of an urban transformation
project on Friday. “No plot or provocation will remain secret. No
murder will remain unsolved,” the prime minister added.
Also on Friday, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin joined the debate
saying the prosecutor has now petitioned for an appeal, and he called
on all sides to continue monitoring the process with calm. “Judges and
prosecutors speak through their written resolutions or legal queries.
I think what most of the press reported as the ‘prosecutor’s response’
to the judge were actually statements from his petition. Any other
evaluation or comment would simply hurt the process. The bullets that
were shot at Dink were [also] shot at Turkey’s solidarity, peace and
brotherhood,” he stated.
He added that the government was disturbed by the truth about shady
crimes not being brought to light, but noted that they have taken
significant steps in this direction. However, he noted that the
government was working hard to make sure that the invisible faces
behind the Dink murder and other shady incidents — such as the
massacres of Alevis in MaraÅ~_, Corum and Sivas or the Council of
State shooting in 2006 — are revealed. “This is the first time this
country is investigating past unsolved murders,” he said.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıcdaroglu also
commented on the verdict on Friday. “The verdict, which found no
organized criminal connection to the Dink murder, is obviously not
the right decision,” he said. “There have been hundreds of articles
and books published about this. The existence of an organized network
has been well documented.”
“And now the judge and the prosecutor are clashing horns over that
verdict. This further shows that it was wrong. Since then there have
been many protests against the verdict, and it has also not been a
verdict that was accepted as just by the public,” he added. The CHP
leader blamed the government’s intervention for the ruling.
Another person who publicly criticized the ruling was Ä°stanbul
Deputy Prosecutor Fikret Secen, who has conducted investigations
into activities associated with organized crime. He told journalist
Taha Akyol that he believed the Dink killing was the work of an
organized criminal gang. He also said he was going to petition the
Supreme Court of Appeals and challenge the ruling. “It might or
might not be connected, on the basis of the legal evidence we have,
to Ergenekon [a clandestine network charged with plotting to overthrow
the government],” he suggested.
Secen added that the Ä°stanbul prosecutor’s office was currently
conducting an investigation into the alleged negligence of a number
of police department and gendarmerie intelligence officers who,
Dink family lawyers say, acted either in collusion with the killers
or didn’t do anything to prevent the assassination despite having
knowledge of plans to kill Dink. In other words, the Dink murder
investigation is still under way apart from the process that was
launched at the Supreme Court of Appeals with the prosecutor’s petition
of the final verdict.
Secen also said his office was examining the records of cell phone
numbers found by the Telecommunications Administration (TÄ°B) that were
active in the vicinity of the crime scene at the time of the murder.