A la memoire des 1 500 000 victimes armeniennes

Lawyers: Five people at Dink murder scene linked to suspects

10 January 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

At least five people known to have been in the vicinity of the 2007 assassination of journalist Hrant Dink have links to the murder suspects currently undergoing investigation in the case, prosecution lawyers have claimed.

During the 24th hearing of the trial that took place on Monday at İstanbul's 14th High Criminal Court, Fethiye Çetin, lawyer for the Dink Family, said that the Turkish Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) had provided the court with incorrect records of phone calls made on the day of the murder, Jan. 19, 2007. TİB had told the court that 6,235 phone conversations took place in the vicinity at the time of the murder and that 9,300 people were carrying cell phones in the area. It also said that their records showed no link to any of the cell phones.

“TİB’s statement is not true,” Çetin said, adding that at least five cell phone numbers belonging to people who were present at the crime scene on the day of the murder were directly connected to Mustafa Öztürk and Sahil Hacısalihoğlu, two suspects in the investigation. “We know the numbers we have detected were definitely there on the day of the murder. Calls were made from these phones,” she said.

She went on to claim that one of the numbers assigned to a cell phone present in the area at the time of the murder had made 19 calls to suspect Mustafa Öztürk between the dates Oct. 22 2005 – about two years prior to the murder -- and Jan. 27 2007

Çetin said she also failed to understand how TİB and the police force, which she said have access to highly advanced and state of the art technology, have failed to detect these connections that she and her fellow lawyers were able to discover with no technical background. “It is impossible to understand how this was reported to the prosecutor’s office as correct information.”

She accused the İstanbul Police Department of misleading judicial institutions, obscuring evidence and attempting to “keep the truth from coming out.”

This is not the first time Dink family lawyers have discovered information that appears to be secretly held from the prosecution and the court. Since the first day of the trial, they have been expressing their frustration that the murder investigation seems to be stuck at square one. They have also voiced concerns that there may have been attempts to protect the suspects. A lengthy list of suspicious irregularities in the Dink murder investigation, including deleted records and hidden files, suggestive of a police cover-up attempt, has marred the judicial process. Much of the evidence has indicated that the murder could have been prevented. Since the day of the murder, mounting evidence has indicated that the police were tipped off about the assassination plot some months before the actual attack. İstanbul’s police chief has also acknowledged that there was a tip-off about a possible attack on Dink, but said its priority level was too low for his department to take it seriously.

More dishearteningly, links between the police and suspects have been revealed. For example, Erhan Tuncel, a key suspect in the murder, was previously a police informant. Although Tuncel is suspected of having incited Dink’s murderer, he is also said to be the one who tipped off İstanbul police. Important evidence, including Tuncel’s police records, were hidden from the court. In fact, Tuncel’s file with the police was destroyed, since it constitutes a “state secret” according to officials.

The investigation has yielded more evidence linking the masterminds of the murder plot to the police force in İstanbul and Trabzon, the hometown of most of the suspects and the place where the assassination was planned and in Ankara, where the police were in possession of intelligence about the murder.

The intention to obscure crucial evidence was not limited to hiding or destroying files on suspects, Dink family lawyers say. Footage from active security cameras at shops and banks located close to the crime scene was also mysteriously lost. These recordings would have been invaluable in identifying those associated with the murderer on the day of the assassination.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-268232-lawyers-five-people-at-dink-murder-scene-linked-to-suspects.html


Hrant Dink’s friends call for fair trial
Published: 12.01.12
The friends of Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, are going to hold a march to the Agos editorial office on January 19 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death.
They have issued a statement in this connection, calling for a fair punishment of those who plotted and committed Dink s murder.
Hrant Dink was killed on January 19, 2007. Five years have passed since then, yet the fact that two people actually plotted and perpetrated his assassination will never convince us. Those who threatened Dink and ordered his murder, and set a trap against him ridding themselves of the affair are making a mock of our grief. We do not want a predetermined trial that would punish only those who shoot a bullet at Dink... We still have a lot to do. People who have conscience have been suffering from an aggravating pain for five years. If we forget all this we ll once again kill our friend, leaving a handle to new murders, reads the statement.
Source: http://tert.am/en/news/2012/01/12/hrant-dink


OPEN LETTER
for the release of Turkish Cypriot activist Halil Karapaşaoğlu
To: President of the Republic of Turkey

Mr. Abdullah Gül

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Cc: Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Dear Mr. President,
On behalf of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, I am writing to you to express our grave concern about the case of Turkish Cypriot activist Halil Karapaşaoğlu and call for his immediate and unconditional release.
On 5 January 2012, Halil Karapaşaoğlu was sentenced to ten days confinement in military jail on the outskirts of the northern part of Nicosia after the closed hearing in a military court found him guilty of bringing the Turkish military into disrepute by writing an article in a Turkish Cypriot newspaper on claiming physical violence had been used against conscripts. He was also accused of travelling to the Greek Cypriot side while in the army. Karapaşaoğlu’s lawyers said however that he had been on medical discharge when he wrote the article and travelled to the south of the island. Halil Karapaşaoğlu was arrested at the Ledra Checkpoint, while he was going to his work in the southern part of Cyprus on 28 December 2011, one day after publishing his article entitled “No to Violence Against Lokmaci Soldiers” about his experiences during his compulsory military service within the Nicosia Lokmaci Military Unit of the Turkish Cypriot Army, which is under the control of the Turkish Army and the Chief Commander of the Turkish Cypriot Army who is appointed directly by Ankara. Turkish Cypriot police blocked traffic leading to the military court and prevented the lawyer and relatives of Halil Karapaşaoğlu, as well as supporters and journalists from attending his trial.
The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection calls on you to withdraw all charges against Halil Karapaşaoğlu, release him and provide effective remedy to him because his human rights and fundamental freedoms have been violated; namely the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Furthermore, we call on you to thoroughly investigate all the allegations of abuse within the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot militaries and bring those responsible to justice; as in the case of 21-year-old Uğur Kantar, the Turkish conscript serving in the northern part of Cyprus who died after being allegedly tortured to death in a military jail in October 2011.
Yours sincerely,

Friedhelm Schneider

President of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection

CHTI

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