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Dink murder convict ready to testify if gendarmes stand trial

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  • Dink murder convict ready to testify if gendarmes stand trial

    Dink murder convict ready to testify if gendarmes stand trial

    March 3, 2012 - 18:58 AMT


    PanARMENIAN.Net - Yasin Hayal, who received a life sentence for his
    involvement in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
    has said some gendarmerie officers in Trabzon should stand trial for
    their involvement in the murder of Dink and added that he is ready to
    testify whenever needed, Today's Zaman reports.

    Hayal, who claims that he received the instructions to murder Dink
    from Erhan Tuncel, has said that gendarmerie officers in Trabzon
    insistently told him to stay in contact with Tuncel, who they called a
    good man.

    Tuncel, the controversial Trabzon police informant who was sentenced
    to 10 years for his role in the 2004 bombing of a McDonald's in
    Trabzon, was acquitted of all charges regarding the Dink murder,
    including the prosecutors' claim that he was the one who gave orders
    to Hayal.

    Adding that he went to the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command many times
    after the murder, Hayal said he would testify if prosecutors
    investigate the gendarmes. `The court has asked for the gendarmerie
    command's guest book to see whether or not I went there, and they
    could not see my name in the book; this is because I was allowed to
    move freely about the post, and officers told me that I didn't need to
    sign the book.'

    Explaining his relations with the gendarmes before the murder, Hayal
    says a high-level gendarmerie officer named Nazım gave orders to
    privates in the office to pay great respect to Hayal. `When someone in
    his 20s gets praised like that all time, he would blindly do anything
    for a person of such rank. They used to provide everything for me,
    including food and clothing,' he added.

    Hayal says he previously provided evidence of gendarmes' involvement
    in the murder case but that the court has not investigated the
    documents he provided.

    The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was
    shot and killed in broad daylihgt on Jan 19, 2007 by ultranationalist
    Ogun Samast outside the offices of his newspaper in Istanbul.

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