Former Turkish police chief denies blame in Dink murder

Former Turkish police chief denies blame in Dink murder

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Turkish police chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer said he cannot be held responsible for the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, as he was not even serving in Istanbul at the time of assassination, and blamed the Istanbul Police Department for failing to protect Dink, according to Today’s Zaman.

Yılmazer testified as a suspect in the investigation.

In his testimony, he said that he was employed in Ankara when the killing took place. Stating that the Istanbul Police Department was responsible for providing guards to protect Dink upon receiving intelligence data suggesting he was in danger, Yılmazer said that the fact that he is being connected to the murder is clearly slander. He pointed to earlier inspectors' reports that stated Yılmazer had not been involved in any misconduct regarding the incident.

Dink was assassinated in broad daylight outside the office of his Agos newspaper on Jan 17, 2007.

Yılmazer testified to Prosecutor Yusuf Hakkı Doğan for five hours, saying that he was the chief of Branch C of the Intelligence Unit of the Ankara Police Department when the assassination took place, and that the accusations against him were put forward in relation to two statements saying that Dink was in danger being sent to Branch C by the Trabzon Police Department.

He stated that he was on duty abroad when the two statements arrived at the branch on Feb 17, 2006, and he therefore did not see them. He added that attempts are made to dishonor him and that the two statements were actually directed to the Istanbul Police Department. He said the statements were merely sent to his branch to keep them informed, adding that it was the Istanbul Police Department who were responsible in taking the necessary security measures to protect Dink.

The suspect also said that “everybody knows how it works, but someone just wants to make me look suspicious,” emphasizing that all accusations against him constitute slander.

He is currently behind bars on wiretapping charges.

Yılmazer had also released a press statement via his lawyer on Oct 23 in which he denied some media reports that linked him with the Dink murder. He had said the reports manipulated testimony given by Ramazan Akyürek, the former head of the National Police Department's intelligence unit, who testified as a suspect in an ongoing investigation into the killing of Dink in January.

One report claimed that Akyürek cited Yılmazer as a person responsible for the murder. In his statement in October, Yılmazer emphasized that he had not even been serving in İstanbul during the time when the murder took place.

“It is [due to] bad intentions that my name has been given when others were serving at the Istanbul Police Department at that time. Others are being protected,” Yılmazer said.

Dink was shot dead by an ultra-nationalist teenager seven years ago. The hitman, Ogün Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial. During the process, the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting Samast to murder. However, Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an informant for the Trabzon Police Department and was the man accused of initiating the effort to have Dink murdered, was found not guilty.

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