COURT REFUSES TO COMBINE THE TRABZON GENDARMERIE CASE WITH DINK’S MURDER
BIA
July 8 2008
Turkey
The court heard the testimonies of Ä°gci, Tuncel and Samast, but in
spite of all the indications, it refused to see any connection with
the Gendarmerie trial in Trabzon. The accused did not seem to take
the trial seriously, making fun of the questions.
Bia news center – Ä°stanbul 08-07-2008 Erol ONDEROÄ~^LU –
[email protected]
In the sixth hearing, Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court, which is
trying the Dink murder case, decided to continue keeping the eight
accused under arrest.
In spite of the constant demands by Dink’s lawyers, the court refused
to combine the Trabzon Gendarmerie case with the Din murder case.
The court heard the testimony of CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci, a former gendarmerie
informant and the ex-husband of Yasin Hayal’s aunt.
The next hearing will be on October 13.
Ä°gci said that he did his duty as a citizen and tried to prevent
Hayal from carrying out Dink’s murder. He further added that once he
realized he could not prevent him anymore, he informed the gendarmerie
about Hayal’s plans and he was also able to delay the murder for one,
one a half months up until October 2006 by telling Hayal that he was
going to buy a gun. After this, he said, he never saw Hayal anymore.
Ä°gci: I met with the gendarmerie authorities five, six times Ä°gci
repeated the same testimony that he gave during the Trabzon trial
and said that among the accused, he only knew Ahmet Ä°skender.
He told Bahri Bayram Belen, one of Dink’s lawyers, that he knew the
gendarmerie people with whom he was in touch since 2004 and he met with
them five, six times after the intelligence reports about Yasin Hayal.
The court also heard, in its first session, Hakkı Bahadır Cihan,
son of YaÅ~_ar Cihan, a provincial chairperson of the Great Unity
Party (BBP). He told the court that there was no connection between
the BBP and the "Alperen Ocakları" (Hero-Dervish Hearths), claiming
that Metin Gundogdu’s statement "our people were going to do the Dink
job, they messed it up" was transmitted wrongly.
Cihan refused the allegation that Tuncel had the keys to the "Alperen
Ocakları". Arzu Becerik, one of Dink’s lawyers, confronted him
by asking the question how he, as the person responsible for the
organization of the Hearths, did not even know that Yasin Hayal was
running Alperen’s tea service facility.
The lawyers also asked Cihan why he called Erhan Tuncel after the
murder. His reply was for "personal curiosity."
Furthermore, Cihan added that he met Hayal in "Nizam-ı Alem"
(roughly translated as the World/the Imperial Standard) hearths,
became close friends with him and the relationship came to an end
once Hayal went away to do his military service and he enrolled in a
university. He said that he did not remember where he met Erhan Tuncel.
In the afternoon part of the trial, the court heard the testimonies of
Ogun Samast’s relatives YaÅ~_ar Samast and Aslan Samast, Ahmet Emin
Ozmete, who saw Ogun Samast running after the murder, Agos employee
Ä°nan Murat and Agos advertisement section employee Kristin Dellaloglu.
Agos employees Murat and Dellaloglu identified Ogun Samast as the
person who visited the newspaper by introducing himself as a student
in Ankara University and Ozmete confirmed that he was the one running
on Å~^afak Street right next to the Agos building after the murder.
In the meantime, Tuncel rejected the report that claimed that his
relation with the police was ended on November 17, 2006, asserting
that this report was prepared to clear the police officers of the
responsibility.
"Who do you represent?"
Tuncel said that never a written report was demanded from him, what
the judge read was a report made up of all the information that was
collected in one month.
He said he could not accept the allegations since it was in his best
interest that the truth came out, because his psychology was messed
up after one and half years in jail. He asserted that "whether you
accept it or not, I represent some people here."
When he was asked by Fikret Ä°lkiz, one of Dink’s lawyers, who he
represented, Tuncel’s response was that regardless of whatever angle
anyone wanted to look at the situation, he was an information element.
Lawyer Hatemi demanded that the court should hear the testimony
of the individuals stated in Tuncel’s petition Reminding the court
that Tncel was trying to send a message to certain places at every
opportunity he gets, Kezban Hatemi, one of Dink’s lawyers, demanded
from the court that those who were mentioned in Tuncel’s petition
presented on Jun 26, 2008 be brought to the court to be listened.
In the morning session of the trial, Yasin Hayal’s lawyer Fuat
Turgut also asked some provoking questions to accused Erhan Tuncel
and Ogun Samast.
Lawyer Turgut told Tuncel that he had an Israeli girlfriend and
asked him if he ever thought that she could be from the Israeli
secret service.
Tuncel said that these questions were not appropriate, since they were
about his private life, and added that she was instead the daughter
of the Israeli president, he did not know at the moment.
Lawyer Turgut also asked Samast if the first person he met with was
Etyen Mahcupyan; his response was "no, Jennifer Lopez."
Also during the trial, Yasin Hayal managed to send a greeting to
Muhsin Yazıcıoglu, head of the BBP, by shouting "I salute the leader
of the noble Turkish people Muhsin Yazıcıoglu. Muslims, Alperens,
have your hearts be at ease; this caravan will keep on moving until
the BBP rules." (EO/NZ/TB)
–Boundary_(ID_iKk++sTfF1VPX4mJ3G4E6Q) —