ANKARA: Dink murder: Turkish police chief surrenders

Turkish Press
Jan 19 2015

Dink murder: Turkish police chief surrenders

Monday, January 19, 2015

The arrest comes hours after police chief Ercan Demi surrendered to
the Ankara police department

ANKARA – An Istanbul court ordered Monday the arrest of a Turkish
police chief, who was suspected of negligence in the murder case of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist in 2007, hours after he surrendered to
Ankara police department.

Ercan Demir was brought to Istanbul’s fifth penal court, where he was
charged with causing the death of Hrant Dink by “deliberate
negligence.”

Demir was police chief in Turkey’s Trabzon province when Dink was
murdered in Istanbul. The murderer, Ogun Samast, reportedly came from
Trabzon.

The surrender came three days after an Istanbul court, on the appeal
of the prosecutor, decided Friday to issue an arrest warrant for
Demir, who was removed from his post as police chief in Cizre town in
Turkey’s southeastern province of Sirnak. He was said to be due to get
appointed at Ankara police department’s Information Technologies unit.

High-profile figures who were questioned about the case last month
included former Istanbul Vice Governor Ergun Gungor, former Istanbul
police chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul police intelligence
unit chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler.

Demir was previously questioned by an Istanbul prosecutor last Monday
and detained for two days. He was released on conditional probation by
an Istanbul court Wednesday.

Dink’s murderer, Samast, who was 17-years-old at the time, was tried
and convicted in 2011.

Dink was the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Agos and was
considered to be one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.

Samast, who is serving a 23-year sentence in prison, said he killed
Dink for insulting “Turkishness.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress