Turkish court refused to try seven Trabzon police officers involved in Dink murder

PanARMENIAN.Net - Administrative Court has refused permission to try seven police officers from the Trabzon police department, arguing that they had no involvement in the murder of Hrant Dink.



The joint attorneys had then asked the Regional Administrative Court for a decision. Fethiye Cetin, lawyer for the Dink family, said that they had not officially been notified of the court decision yet, but that she was curious how it would be justified. The Trabzon Governor's Office had not offered any justification for refusing the investigation of the police officers.



The trial of Hrant Dink's murder continues at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court with 19 defendants, eight of them detained. Legal proceeding were launched against two policemen accused of posing with gunman Ogun Samast in Samsun, BYA Turkish newspaper reports.



The next hearing is due on 11 February 2008.



Hrant Dink was shot dead in front of the office of the weekly Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper in Sisli, central Istanbul, on 19 January 2007 by teenager Ogun Samast. Human rights activists in Turkey and around the world are demanding that the trial go beyond the obvious murder suspects and uncover the involvement of more powerful forces behind the murder.