ANKARA, Turkey: A right-wing politician detained for questioning in connection with the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist was released Tuesday without charge.
But police were still questioning three other members of the local branch of the conservative and nationalist Great Unity Party over the Jan. 19 murder of journalist Hrant Dink. The three were scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday to face possible charges or be released from custody.
Yasar Cihan, the head of Great Unity Party in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon, was detained late Sunday and taken to Istanbul for questioning. Authorities did not say on what grounds Cihan and the three others were detained, but the politician had admitted giving money to the family of one of the suspects charged in the killing. Cihan had insisted the money was a charitable gift — he said he often helps needy families.
Dink was shot dead outside the offices of his paper, Agos, in Istanbul. Prosecutors have pressed charges against 10 suspects, including some former members of the youth wing of Great Unity.
Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Agos newspaper and an outspoken activist for minority rights and free expression, had been brought to trial several times for allegedly "insulting Turkishness," a crime under Turkey's penal code.
Dink's killing prompted international condemnation as well as debate within Turkey about free speech, and whether state institutions showed tolerance to militant nationalists.
