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ANKARA: Court Rules For Retrial Of Suspects In Dink Murder Case

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  • ANKARA: Court Rules For Retrial Of Suspects In Dink Murder Case

    COURT RULES FOR RETRIAL OF SUSPECTS IN DINK MURDER CASE

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Oct 30 2014

    The Ä°stanbul 5th High Criminal Court has agreed to comply with a
    ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals in May 2013 that overturned
    the lower court ruling acquitting suspects in the Hrant Dink murder
    case of forming a terrorist organization, paving the way for a retrial
    of the suspects.

    Dink, the editor-in-chief of Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot
    and killed in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an ultranationalist
    teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in Ä°stanbul. Evidence
    discovered since then has led to claims that the murder was linked to
    the "deep state," a term that refers to a shadowy group of military
    and civilian bureaucrats believed to have links with organized crime.

    Although it has been more than seven years since the assassination,
    no satisfactory outcome has been produced by the trial.

    The 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the
    lower court ruling acquitting the suspects of forming a terrorist
    organization, but it said they were guilty of forming an illegal and
    armed organization to commit a crime in line with Turkish Penal Code
    (TCK) Article 220.

    The suspects will now be retried over charges of "being members of
    an organization established to commit a crime."

    The court also ruled for the merger of the main Dink murder trial
    with the trial of Ogun Samast, Dink's hitman, at a juvenile court
    over charges of "being a member of a terrorist organization."

    In the meantime, a group of people who identify themselves as Hrant's
    Friends has called on the trial of certain public officials for their
    role in the murder of Dink over Article 83 of the TCK, which concerns
    voluntary manslaughter.

    The Dink murder case has been fraught with controversy -- as well
    as some solid evidence -- suggesting that many state officials, from
    gendarmerie and police chiefs to bureaucrats, were either negligent in
    their duties and ignored signs of an assassination plot to kill the
    journalist or, according to the Dink family lawyers' claims, were in
    the know about the plot and did nothing -- because they agreed with
    it or were part of it or did not care. Other incidents and evidence
    that came up during the trial also indicate that there were attempts
    to cover up the investigation.

    Hrant's Friends met in front of the Ä°stanbul Courthouse before
    the beginning of the trial on Thursday, carrying banners that read:
    "We are all Hrant, We are all Armenians, Try them over Article 83."

    Speaking on behalf of the group, Yetvart Danzikyan,
    a journalist-researcher, recalled the decision of the Ministry of
    Justice that opened the way for the investigation into the public
    officials for their role in Dink's murder, saying, "One stone was
    eventually unturned after eight years because the investigation of
    some public officials has been possible."

    He said although the state has tried hard to protect public officials,
    the court trial has evolved so much that doing this is no longer
    possible.

    "We don't know whether we can look at the future of this trial with
    more hope. Or is hope an appropriate term to be used for this trial?

    But we know that following an eight-year-long fight, one stone has been
    unturned. An opportunity has been created to bring public officials
    to justice. We should make use of this opportunity to the very end,"
    he said.

    Danzikyan noted that the nine public officials and all other public
    officials who had a role in the Dink murder should be tried not for
    negligence but over Article 83 of the TCK, which concerns voluntary
    manslaughter.

    The lawyers of Dink's family filed a complaint in 2011 with the
    Ä°stanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Ä°stanbul Deputy
    Governor Ergun Gungör, former İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin
    Cerrah, the former chief of the Ä°stanbul Police Department's
    intelligence unit, Ahmet İlhan Gungör, and six other police officers
    on the grounds that those public officials were negligent in preventing
    Dink's murder.

    After the complaint, the chief public prosecutor's office applied to
    the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office to ask for permission to investigate
    those listed public officials. However, the governor's office did not
    give this permission to the prosecutor's office. After the governor's
    office's made its decision, the prosecutors decided not to prosecute.

    However, the Dink family filed an appeal with the Bakırköy 8th High
    Criminal Court to annul the decision of the Ä°stanbul Chief Public
    Prosecutor's Office not to prosecute.

    On May 21 of this year, the Bakırköy court decided to cancel the
    decision not to prosecute.

    Following the high criminal court's ruling, the Ä°stanbul Chief Public
    Prosecutor's Office applied to the Ministry of Justice, requesting
    that the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of
    Appeals appeal the verdict of the Bakırköy 8th High Criminal Court.

    The Ministry of Justice rejected this request, opening the way for an
    investigation into the public officials against whom the Dink family
    originally filed the criminal complaint.

    This recent decision has paved the way for the trial of the
    public officials on the charge of negligence in the murder of the
    Turkish-Armenian journalist.

    Back in January 2012, the 14th Specially Authorized High Criminal
    Court -- as the court was previously called -- acquitted all the
    suspects in the case of the charge of being a member of a terrorist
    organization. The Chief Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of
    Appeals challenged the ruling, arguing that the suspects had not acted
    alone but as part of a criminal organization. Later, the 9th Criminal
    Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals reversed the acquittal of
    the suspects on charges of membership in a criminal organization. The
    chamber ruled that the suspects should be retried on this charge.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/national_court-rules-for-retrial-of-suspects-in-dink-murder-case_363027.html

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