Six military offiials convicted in Hrant Dink trial
Six military offiials convicted in Hrant Dink trial
The Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace on Thursday convicted six of eight suspects of neglect of duty in a case on claims of negligence in preventing the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, in a rare positive development since the start of the trial four years ago.
The Trabzon court handed down prison sentences of six months each for Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Col. Ali Öz and Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit Director Cpt. Metin Yýldýz.
Dink, editor-in-chief of the Agos daily, was shot dead outside his newspaper's office in Ýstanbul in broad daylight on January 19, 2007. The hitman, Ogün Samast, was captured about one day after the murder. Other suspects, including Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, were captured in the following days on charges of soliciting Samast, who was a minor at the time, for Dink's murder. However, Dink family lawyers have been claiming that Hayal and Tuncel, who both have proven questionable links to the Trabzon Police and the gendarmerie intelligence departments, were acting as agents in a larger plot. Two other courts involved in the case, the Ýstanbul 14th Criminal Court and the Trabzon Criminal Court have been reluctant to deepen the investigation into the real masterminds of the murder, despite plenty of evidence that the young men weren't acting alone.
The Trabzon court handed down prison sentences of six months each for Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Col. Öz and Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit Director Cpt. Yýldýz.
NCOs Okan Þimþek, Veysel Þahin, Hüseyin Yýlmaz and Hacý Ömer Ünalýr were also each sentenced to four months in jail over the same charges. The two other military personnel were acquitted by the court. The suspects were accused of assisting the murderers at the time the plan to assassinate Dink was being hatched.
The Trabzon court handed down prison sentences of six months each for Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Col. Ali Öz and Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit Director Cpt. Metin Yýldýz.
Dink, editor-in-chief of the Agos daily, was shot dead outside his newspaper's office in Ýstanbul in broad daylight on January 19, 2007. The hitman, Ogün Samast, was captured about one day after the murder. Other suspects, including Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, were captured in the following days on charges of soliciting Samast, who was a minor at the time, for Dink's murder. However, Dink family lawyers have been claiming that Hayal and Tuncel, who both have proven questionable links to the Trabzon Police and the gendarmerie intelligence departments, were acting as agents in a larger plot. Two other courts involved in the case, the Ýstanbul 14th Criminal Court and the Trabzon Criminal Court have been reluctant to deepen the investigation into the real masterminds of the murder, despite plenty of evidence that the young men weren't acting alone.
The Trabzon court handed down prison sentences of six months each for Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Col. Öz and Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit Director Cpt. Yýldýz.
NCOs Okan Þimþek, Veysel Þahin, Hüseyin Yýlmaz and Hacý Ömer Ünalýr were also each sentenced to four months in jail over the same charges. The two other military personnel were acquitted by the court. The suspects were accused of assisting the murderers at the time the plan to assassinate Dink was being hatched.
