Turkish policemen on trial for posing with suspect in Dink murder

Two Turkish policemen went on trial Friday for their role in a scandal which saw security forces pose for pictures with the suspected murderer of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the official Anatolia news agency reported. The trial in the northern city of Samsun is the first time that members of the security forces have been brought before a court over the January 19 murder, which the police are accused of failing to prevent.

The charges followed a complaint from Dink's family that police protected the self-confessed killer, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, when he was captured in Samsun a day after Dink was shot dead in Istanbul. Footage and photos leaked to the media at the time showed officers, some of them in uniform, posing with Samast as he held a Turkish flag, unleashing accusations that some officials may secretly approve of the murder.

Meanwhile, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the authorities to go after all those who instigated or knew about the plan to kill Dink. “Thanks to the Dink family’s efforts, some progress has been made since the first hearing on July 2,” RSF said. “It shows the authorities have begun to realise the seriousness of this case, and we welcome that. But this initial progress is not enough. All the people who participated in this murder, and all those who were aware of its preparation and did nothing to stop it, must also be prosecuted and punished according to the law.”

The second hearing in the trial is due to be held on October 1 in Istanbul. Nineteen persons are being tried for Dink’s murder or complicity in his murder. Only eight of them are currently detained after the court decided to release four of the suspects - Salih Hacisalioglu, Veysel Toprak, Osman Alpay and Irfan Ozkan - during the first hearing.

As a result of a March 15 letter from the victim’s widow, Rakel Dink, urging Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to investigate what happened during the months prior to Dink’s death, Erdogan announced that he has assigned the case to his Commission of Enquiry, a special team that is permanently at his disposal, according to RSF.

Two of the commission’s investigators reportedly went to the northern city of Trabzon, where all the defendants live, to look into the accusations that have been levelled against its security forces. Two members of the city’s police were already being investigated as a result of allegations made by Coskun Igci, the 19th person to be charged. Igci claims he was employed as an informant by the police and warned them that an attack was being prepared on Dink.

Born in 1954, Dink was the editor of the weekly Agos, Turkey’s leading Armenian newspaper. For years he had been urging his fellow citizens to face up to the issue of the Armenian genocide in 1915. Although the target of threats and accusations, he always refused to leave Turkey.

After the Dink family filed a new complaint, the family and the two of the leading suspects, Yasin Hayal and Eran Tuncel, were formally questioned again as to what they knew about the role of two police officials in the case.

Trabzon’s governor decided on August 7 that intelligence chief Ramazan Akyürek, and Trabzon police chief Resat Altay are not to be prosecuted for failing to prevent the murder despite repeated warnings. The Dink family has appealed against the decision not to bring prosecutions against them and against police officers Engin Dinç, Faruk Sari, Ercan Demir, Özkan Mumcu, Muhittin Zenit and Mehmet Ayhan.