New Ruling in Dink Murder: Related State Officials Must Face Trial
Ever since the lawyer of Agos Newspaper executive director Hrank Dink on January 19, 2007, his family and lawyers have been struggling to have government personnel responsible and implicated in his murder face trial.
One of the Dink lawyers Hakan Bakırcıoğlu stated that with the decision Bakırköy 8th High Criminal Court reported to them yesterday (June 5), there are no longer any obstacles to the trial of 8 then Istanbul Provincial Security Headquarters personnel.
Bakırköy 8th High Criminal Court in its unanimous ruling on May 21, revoked Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution’s decision denying the need for prosecution in active investigation into state officials that was demanded in the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling on Dink vs. Turkey dated September 14, 2010 where Turkey was convicted. The decision concerns Istanbul Police Headquarters officials and Istanbul Deputy Governor Ergun Gündür.
The decision reads, “When the article and the decision of violation are evaluated together, it is understood that the implementation of the binding violation will only be possible through a direct investigation by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the case of the acceptance of the contrary, it is incontestable that the investigation will go around in circles…”
Governors and police can be sued
Upon the rule of the court, Istanbul Police Commissioner [at that time] Celalettin Cerrah and police officials Ahmet İlhan Güler, Bülent Köksal, İbrahim Pala, İbrahim Şevki Eldivan, Volkan Altunbulak, Bahadır Tekin, Özcan Özkan, and besides İstanbul Deputy Governor [at that time] Ergun Güngör can be sued for the liability in the murder.
The attorneys of Dink Family have made an effort for eight years in order to reveal the liability of the state in the murder. The attorneys filed complaint for several times against Istanbul Governor, Istanbul Provincial Security Directorate, Trabzon Provincial Security Directorate and Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Command after the murder, upon the rule of ECHR and finally upon the regulation “The investigation is reopened after 3 months passed from the decision of ECHR regarding the inadequate investigation.
The attorneys demanded that the authorities should be tried for not taking relevant measures before the murder by not following the murder suspect Yasin Hayal, and later on modifying the documents that were submitted in order to warn the authorities about the murder.
The detection of the linkages became difficult
Upon the question of Ministry of Justice regarding the outcomes of the investigation; investigating authority, Istanbul Prosecutor Yusuf Hakkı Doğan informed that the phase of hearing the witnesses was completed and the phase of hearing suspects has started in the investigation on state workers; however detecting the linkages regarding the murder has became difficult.
Dink case awaiting İskender
On April 18, Istanbul 5th High Criminal Court was unable to issue a ruling on whether or not it must follow the Supreme Court of Appeals’s verdict due to the fact that Ahmet Iskender, a top suspect, has yet to be captured in the murder case.
Requesting to speak in the hearing that Iskender was ordered to be captured, Bakırcıoğlu underlined the necessity of joining the trial Ali Öz, former gendarmerie commandant of Trabzon at the time of Dink murder, with the main case. The court has yet to issue a ruling on Bakırcıoğlu’s request. The aforementioned case will continue on July 17.
Previously, Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals overthrew the convictions of Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal and other defendants, sating that they were not members of “terrorist organization” but a “criminal organization”.
After the removal of Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, a special-duty court, the case was transferred to Istanbul 5th High Criminal Court.
Samast to be tried in the main case
On April 15, Istanbul 2nd Juvenile High Criminal Court requested the official opinion of Istanbul 5th High Criminal Court on whether Ogün Samast’s charges on “being an illegal organization member” must be joined to the main case.
“The upper structure and its connections behind the Dink murder have yet to be uncovered. No prosecutions have been launched against officials within the case. The murder had societal and political implications,” advocate Bakırcıoğlu said during the aforementioned hearing. The next hearing was set to June 27.(EÖ/PU/CB/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.