A prosecutor overseeing an investigation into claims of negligence by public officials in protecting Turkish-Armenian journalist, Agos newspaper editor-in-chief Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in 2007, has decided to prosecute 30 high-level public officials, including Istanbul’s former governor and police chief, on charges of “aiding and abetting murder” instead of negligence.

As Today’s Zaman reported citing Anatolia news agency, prosecutor Muammer Akkaş recently filed a non-prosecution order for the 30 suspects on negligence charges after seeking permission from the Istanbul Governor's Office to launch a probe against the suspects and being denied. The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office appealed the decision at the Istanbul Regional Administrative Court, but the court ruled that the 30 public officials could not be prosecuted on charges of negligence due to a lack of evidence.

The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office then filed a non-prosecution order with regards to the charges of negligence and has reportedly decided to go ahead with the investigation by leveling charges of aiding and abetting Dink's murder against the suspects, the report says.

The initial investigation, which includes former Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler and former Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah, was launched following repeated demands from Dink family lawyers for a new investigation to be launched into several public officials who were allegedly negligent in their duty to protect Dink.

Dink was gunned down by a teenager outside his newspaper's Istanbul office in January 2007, but the ensuing investigation has been highly controversial. The investigation made it obvious that the young man hadn't acted alone but was in fact driven by a group of people whom he called older brothers and who had plotted for more than a year.

In addition to there being suspicious links between the suspects and state security institutions, lawyers representing the Dink family have accused the police of destroying vital evidence and concealing crucial information from the court and the prosecution. Dink family lawyers also claimed that some public officials had prior knowledge about a plot to kill Dink since July 2006 and failed to take the necessary measures, suggesting they had personal relations with the suspects in Dink's murder, whose trial continues at Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court.

Also in September of last year, the European Court of Human Rights declared that the Turkish government had failed in its duty to protect the life of Dink and to effectively investigate his murder. The court said police in both Trabzon - the hometown of the assailant, Ogün Samast - and Istanbul and the Trabzon gendarmerie had been informed of the likelihood of an assassination attempt and even of the identity of the suspected instigators.