Istanbul: Dink Convict Could Be Released Soon: Lawyer

DINK CONVICT COULD BE RELEASED SOON: LAWYER

Hurriyet
Sept 14 2012
Turkey

Yasin Hayal, who is currently serving a life sentence for his role in
the assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, could
be released in four months due to a legal loophole, according to a
lawyer for the Dink family.

The court that issued the sentences in the Dink murder trial failed
to properly send the file to the Supreme Court of Appeals, weekly
Agos, of which Hrant Dink was editor-in-chief when he was murdered
in January, 2006, reported yesterday.

“All of the suspects were acquitted by the court on charges of being
a member of an organization, so the maximum time Hayal could serve
[if the sentence is not approved by the Appeals Court] is six years,”
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family, was quoted as saying in
Agos. “It is almost impossible for the Supreme Court of Appeals to
announce its ruling in the next four months.”

A recent amendment to the Turkish Penal Code has limited the maximum
time to be spent in prison to five years, except on organized crime
or terrorism charges, with the Supreme Court of Appeals having the
authority to extend this for one year.

Bahri Belen, another lawyer for the Dink family, said the issue was
controversial. “We can’t know for sure if the verdict was sent to
the appeals court properly,” he told the Hurriyet Daily News over the
phone yesterday. “But as long as a sentence is approved by the Supreme
Court of Appeals, any convict could be released on such legal grounds.”

The 14th Court of Serious Crimes sent the verdict to the Supreme Court
of Appeals on June 6, but it was sent back to the court because some
intervening parties were not officially informed about it. The court
wrote a notice to Istanbul police on Aug. 10 demanding addresses
and contact information for the intervening parties, showing that it
still was not ready to re-send the verdict, Agos reported.

The verdict will first be submitted to the Chief Prosecutor of the
Supreme Court of Appeals, Cetin said, and he will inform both parties
of his opinion. Then the appeal will be checked. The suspects’ lawyer
will probably ask for a hearing date, further delaying a verdict.

The instigator of the Dink murder, Yasin Hayal, was sentenced on Jan.

17 to aggravated life imprisonment, while the triggerman, Ogun Samast,
had earlier been sentenced to 22 years in prison by a juvenile court.

In its ruling, the court argued that there was not enough evidence
indicating the existence of a conspiracy behind the crime, despite
lingering doubts. A prosecutor then appealed the ruling in the trial
on March 30, arguing that the crime was an organized hit.

September/14/2012

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress