STATE WATCHDOG: FLAWS IN INVESTIGATING OFFICIALS’ NEGLIGENCE IN DINK MURDER CASE
Today’s Zaman
Feb 20 2012
Turkey
The summary of a report prepared by the State Audit Institution
(DDK) regarding the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
has revealed that mistakes were made in the investigation of public
officials who were suspected to have acted negligently in preventing
the murder. The summary of the DDK report was posted on the website
of the presidential office on Monday.
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot dead by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
broad daylight in Ä°stanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. The investigation into
his murder stalled when the suspected perpetrator and his accomplices
were put on trial as those who masterminded the plot to kill him have
yet to be exposed and punished. In the face of growing calls from the
public and a European Court of Human Rights ruling that found Turkey
guilty of failing to protect Dink’s right to life and of carrying
out a thorough investigation into the officers who failed to take
the necessary measures in light of early warnings and tips about the
plot to kill Dink, Gul ordered the DDK to investigate the Dink murder
last year.
The investigation that followed Dink’s death revealed that the police
had been tipped off to the plans for the murder of the journalist;
however, the police failed to intervene. The summary of the DDK
report said the sequence of negligent acts by public officials was
not examined as a whole and no investigation was launched separately
into different state institutions.
It said the method adopted during the investigation of public officials
led to the failure of not investigating all allegations about public
officials as a whole.
The report noted that as a result of this failure, the seriousness of
the actions of public officials in the run up to the murder has not
been understood and the link between their actions and the murder
could not be established, leading to the failure of all of the
investigations into public officials. Speaking to the station NTV,
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik
agreed that mistakes had been made throughout the investigation of
the Dink murder.
“We know that many mistakes were made since the beginning in the run
up to murder, which began in Trabzon. The detection of these mistakes
by the DDK is a significant step to see the functioning of the law.
The final ruling in the Dink case will be appealed. When the DDK
findings are conveyed to the relevant authorities, there will be
investigations again,” he said.
A majority of the suspects, including the hitman, are from Trabzon,
where police say they had informed the Ä°stanbul police about the
plot to kill Dink on more than one occasion.
The Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court issued its final ruling in the
Dink trial last month, which failed to please those expecting justice
to be served. During the process, lawyers for the Dink family and the
co-plaintiffs in the case presented evidence indicating that hitman
Ogun Samast did not act alone. Samast stood trial in a juvenile
court because he was a minor at the time of the murder. He was
recently sentenced to 22 years, 10 months in prison by the court. In
a separate trial, two gendarmerie officers were convicted on charges
of dereliction of duty in the run-up to the Dink murder.
Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting
Samast to murder. However, Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an informant for
the Trabzon Police Department, was found not guilty of masterminding
the murder. The prosecution believes the killers are affiliated with
the Ergenekon network, a shadowy criminal network that has alleged
links within the state and whose suspected members are currently
standing trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
From: A. Papazian