26 Turkish police officers may face trial over Hrant Dink's death

PanARMENIAN.Net - A total of 26 former Turkish police officers may face trial as the indictment in the nine-year-long investigation into negligence by public officials in the assassination of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink has been approved by an Istanbul prosecutor’s office, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, December 9 approved the indictment prepared against 26 former officers, including police chiefs, into “negligence on public duty” in the death of Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul’s Şişli district on January 19, 2007.

The indictment prepared by prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü was presented to the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes after it had been rejected by deputy chief prosecutor Orhan Kapıcı twice.

The 26 former police officers could be tried on “negligence of public duty” charges if the court recognizes the indictment. The court is expected to announce its decision within 15 days.

Individuals facing prison sentences on charges of “forming and heading a terrorist organization” were among the 26 suspects.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü in early November, arguing that “evidence of voluntary manslaughter concerning some of the suspects was not revealed.”

However, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, a Dink family lawyer, said on November 4 that not opening a case against former police chiefs Ahmet İlhan Güler, Celalettin Cerrah, Reşat Altay, Engin Dinç and other suspects, would eliminate their integral responsibility in Dink’s murder.

All the names of the suspects implicated in the investigation were reported to have beenon duty in police departments in Istanbul, Ankara and the Black Sea province of Trabzon at the time of Dink’s murder.

Dink was shot dead outside his office building in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007, by 17-year-old Ogün Samast. Relatives and followers of the case have claimed government officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting their duty to protect the journalist.