Lawyers request to step up investigation into Dink murder

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two lawyers representing the family of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink have asked the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office to step up the protracted investigation into the 2007 murder of the famous Armenian writer and editor.

The lawyers called for the appointment of new prosecutors to conduct a thorough investigation into what they described as a three-year-long "operation" in legal cases, investigations and inquiries.

The lawyers also requested that the prosecutors allocate most of their time and resources into to the investigation.

"The prosecutor or prosecutors who will be appointed to this investigation should be released from other duties and attending hearings because the acts we mentioned in our petition covers a period of more than three years; the number of individuals and institutions involved is quite high and thus require intense concentration and time," lawyer Fethiye Cetin was quoted by the Turkish Today's Zaman as saying. "This is why we requested from the office that prosecutors focus primarily on this investigation to conduct it in a timely and thorough manner, as one should not expect satisfactory work from them with their existing workload."

The petition, which was submitted to the prosecutor's office last Friday, lays out the course of the murder in phases of "preparation", "creating public opinion", "action", "manipulation", and "destroying evidence."

The petition characterizes the "preparation" phase as including the dissemination of media reports framing a negative public opinion of Dink, official complaints against him, and indictments under Article 301.

The request also indicts members of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the intelligence services of the gendarmerie and the police as being part of this phase. It argues the aforementioned groups had been complicit and refused to take preventative measures despite having been aware of plans to kill Dink, asbarez.com reported.