Some pages of Turkish presidential watchdog report on Dink murder censored

PanARMENIAN.Net - The undisclosed sections of a report prepared by the State Audit Institution (DDK) regarding the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink openly accuse police and intelligence officials of negligence in the murder and call for the investigation of certain individuals, Today’s Zaman reported, citing Habertürk daily.

The presidential watchdog announced its report earlier this week on the Office of the President's website. The report said mistakes were made in the investigation of public officials who were suspected of having acted negligently in preventing the murder, adding that a sequence of negligent acts by public officials was not examined as a whole and that no investigation was launched separately into different state institutions.

However, six pages of the long-expected report were censored, reportedly due to state secrecy concerns, arousing curiosity among the public over what information they contained. Habertürk, claiming to have obtained the full report, said on Friday, Feb 24 that the censored sections level serious and explicit accusations against police and gendarmerie officers and the Istanbul Governor's Office.

The six pages also reportedly say there is sufficient evidence to file charges of negligence against certain officials in the İstanbul and Trabzon police departments. The report adds that prosecutors failed to file charges against members of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) who reportedly “warned” Dink to be careful when writing his articles prior to his assassination in 2007.

Habertürk also reported that the full DDK report underlines that the Trabzon Police Department sent a notice to the Istanbul Police Department on Feb. 17, 2006, warning them about an assassination plot against Dink based on intelligence received from Erhan Tuncel - a police informant in Trabzon. The report also said this information was not shared with the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command, although the plot concerned individuals in the town of Pelitli, which fell under the gendarmerie command's jurisdiction. Despite this information no action was taken to prevent the murder, and a fake report was prepared following Dink's assassination, the report said.

The DDK also reportedly discovered that information about a possible assassination plot against Dink was received by the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command from other sources. Although there was clear intelligence that those plotting to kill Dink were obtaining arms, the gendarmerie did not give any importance to this information and did not share it with any judicial body, the report puts forth.