Middle East Monitor
Jan 17 2015
Turkish court issues arrest warrant for senior police officers over
journalist’s death
Saturday, 17 January 2015 14:30
The Magistrates’ and Penalty Court in Istanbul has issued arrest
warrants for two senior police officers in connection with the killing
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Anadolu reported on Friday
that the warrants allege that the officers “did not take the necessary
precautions” to prevent Dink’s assassination.
Former Police Chief Ã-zkan Mumcu and Officer Muhittin Zenit face arrest
and trial. The court said that the accused had had prior knowledge of
the assassination plan and had not acted to take the necessary
precautions to stop it.
Mumcu and Zenit provided statements to Investigating Prosecutor Gökalp
Kökçü on December 26. The magistrate imposed a ban on Mumcu and Zenit
leaving the country and discharged them. However, Kökçü appealed
against the decision and requested new arrest warrants. It is expected
that both of the accused will be remanded in prison when they are
arrested.
Judge Fevzi KeleÃ…? said that there were records of Zenit’s phone calls
to murder suspect Erhan Tuncel, and that he was aware that the
assassination would take place.
Dink was assassinated in January 19, 2007 in front of his office. It
is believed that he was killed because his newspaper used the term
“genocide” to refer to the massacre of Armenians in 1915 by the
Ottoman authorities. Turkey refuses to accept that the killings were
on such a scale to warrant the term genocide.
From: A. Papazian