The Guardian: state officials were complicit in Dink’s murder

PanARMENIAN.Net - Amnesty International's Turkey researcher, Andrew Gardner commented on Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink assassination.

"There has been evidence since the time of the murder five years ago indicating that those on trial were working as part of a network, that state officials were complicit in the murder. This has been acknowledged by the Dink family lawyers, defendants in the case, the prosecutor and a state administrative investigation. Yet those individuals were not investigated effectively, they were not prosecuted,” Andrew Gardner said.

Lawyers representing the Dink family had repeatedly asked the court to summon several witnesses, among them senior police officers in Istanbul and Trabzon, but these requests were rejected. They also presented evidence to the court that the Istanbul police had been informed about a murder plot against Dink, but ignored the warnings.

"It is a damning indictment of justice in Turkey, sending the message that those in positions of power will be protected and human rights violations by state officials will go unpunished," said Gardner.

"The investigation, the prosecution and the verdict were largely irrelevant to achieving justice for Hrant Dink," The Guardian quoted Andrew Gardner as saying.

Hrant Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in Istanbul in broad daylight. The investigation into his murder has stalled; the suspected perpetrator and his accomplices were put on trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him have yet to be exposed and punished.