Officers to stand trial in Dink case
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 18, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - One Gendarmerie colonel and five officers will be tried in court in the Black Sea province of Trabzon for dereliction of duty as part of the murder investigation of Armenian weekly Agos Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink.
Dink, a Turk of Armenian decent, was murdered by an ultranationalist teenager on Jan. 19, 2007, in front of the multilingual weekly Agos in Istanbul and created a national uproar. Dink, who was found guilty of insulting "Turkishness" in an article he had written, had become a target for nationalist anger.
The suspect was captured soon after the murder while he was trying to return to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.
The police later arrested Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal for inciting the teenager to murder the journalist. A total of 20 suspects are on trial for Dink’s murder. Testimonies of Gendarmerie officers and suspects had implied that Col. Ali Öz, the Trabzon Gendarmerie commander at the time, had ignored informants who said there was a plan to assassinate Dink.
A high court in Ankara decided yesterday that the Trabzon Second Criminal Court had the authority to try Öz and his five junior Gendarmerie officers, reported Doğan news agency. All six will face charges of dereliction of duty for knowing but doing nothing about plans to kill Dink. The charges carry a prison term of between six months and two years. Two noncommissioned Gendarmerie officers are already on trial for the same charges. It is expected that the cases will be merged.
The suspect was captured soon after the murder while he was trying to return to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.
The police later arrested Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal for inciting the teenager to murder the journalist. A total of 20 suspects are on trial for Dink’s murder. Testimonies of Gendarmerie officers and suspects had implied that Col. Ali Öz, the Trabzon Gendarmerie commander at the time, had ignored informants who said there was a plan to assassinate Dink.
A high court in Ankara decided yesterday that the Trabzon Second Criminal Court had the authority to try Öz and his five junior Gendarmerie officers, reported Doğan news agency. All six will face charges of dereliction of duty for knowing but doing nothing about plans to kill Dink. The charges carry a prison term of between six months and two years. Two noncommissioned Gendarmerie officers are already on trial for the same charges. It is expected that the cases will be merged.