Hrant Dink trial continues
Hrant Dink trial continues
The 22nd hearing of the trial related to the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was heard before the Beþiktaþ (Istanbul) 14th High Criminal Court on Monday (5 December). Dink, founder and then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was shot in front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.
The hearing was attended by un-detained defendant Mustafa Öztürk and detained key suspects Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, reported Bianet. The joint attorneys of the Dink family presented their final plea to court.
The session began at 11.00 am and finished in the late afternoon at 5.00 pm. The plaintiff lawyers read out 73 pages of their final plea in turns. Together with the attachment the attorneys' speech comprised a total of 106 pages.
The plea also referred to joint attorney Hakan Karadað who committed suicide in the course of the trial.
The text of the attorneys' speech included detailed information on the set up of the murder, its political and ideological basis, on who Dink was and why he was killed. Accountabilities of the defendants and public officials were depicted and requests related to the trial were reiterated.
The lawyers emphasized that the council of the prosecution did not attach sufficient importance on the background of the murder during the four-year and ten-month trial period. Their speech started with an explanation of who Hrant Dink actually was.
"Who was Hrant Dink and why was he killed?" was the heading of a section on Dink's life, his professional career and articles written by the slain journalist.
The articles read out were for instance "The state of my soul is like the restlessness of a dove" published in the Agos newspaper on 19 January 2007, the day of the murder, or "Why was I chosen as a target?" (Agos, 12 January 2007).
The lawyers pointed to the article "The secret of Sabiha Hatun" about Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female fighter pilot and one of the adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, published in the Agos daily on 6 February 2004. They concluded that the process which lead to the murder was started when this article made the headlines in the nation-wide Hürriyet newspaper on 21 February 2004. The following day, the General Staff had announced that "This article was an offence against the integrity of the state", the lawyers mentioned.
The hearing was attended by un-detained defendant Mustafa Öztürk and detained key suspects Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, reported Bianet. The joint attorneys of the Dink family presented their final plea to court.
The session began at 11.00 am and finished in the late afternoon at 5.00 pm. The plaintiff lawyers read out 73 pages of their final plea in turns. Together with the attachment the attorneys' speech comprised a total of 106 pages.
The plea also referred to joint attorney Hakan Karadað who committed suicide in the course of the trial.
The text of the attorneys' speech included detailed information on the set up of the murder, its political and ideological basis, on who Dink was and why he was killed. Accountabilities of the defendants and public officials were depicted and requests related to the trial were reiterated.
The lawyers emphasized that the council of the prosecution did not attach sufficient importance on the background of the murder during the four-year and ten-month trial period. Their speech started with an explanation of who Hrant Dink actually was.
"Who was Hrant Dink and why was he killed?" was the heading of a section on Dink's life, his professional career and articles written by the slain journalist.
The articles read out were for instance "The state of my soul is like the restlessness of a dove" published in the Agos newspaper on 19 January 2007, the day of the murder, or "Why was I chosen as a target?" (Agos, 12 January 2007).
The lawyers pointed to the article "The secret of Sabiha Hatun" about Sabiha Gökçen, the world's first female fighter pilot and one of the adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, published in the Agos daily on 6 February 2004. They concluded that the process which lead to the murder was started when this article made the headlines in the nation-wide Hürriyet newspaper on 21 February 2004. The following day, the General Staff had announced that "This article was an offence against the integrity of the state", the lawyers mentioned.
