Turkish journalist faces imprisonment for column about Dink case

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hopes are dimming for justice in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink as the 14th hearing in the case is held in Istanbul, with family members, lawyers and supporters saying the investigation has been lacking, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Expressing some of the same concerns Daily News columnist Cengiz Candar is now facing a prison sentence of between one and three years for a column about the case.

Expectations for the high-profile Dink trial have fallen as suspects in the case have repeatedly been released, leaving just three men under arrest, a friend of Dink said.

“The demands of the Dink family’s lawyers from the court have not been met thus far. Even the man on the street knows there are more people behind this murder than these three suspects, but they are not here,” said Hayko Bagdat, first Armenian who broadcasts a critical radio program in Turkey.

The next hearing in the Dink case has been postponed until Oct. 25.

In a February column published in daily Referans and the Daily News, Candar had expressed some of the same concerns as Bagdat. “No justice comes, or can come, out of that [court] room. The Hrant Dink case proceeds with such frivolity that it is impossible to expect justice from such recklessness,” Candar wrote in his column titled “Hrant and ‘justice’ being ridiculed,” in which he criticized the court for, among other things, “forgetting to bring in the most critical witness.”

Candar is facing a prison sentence on charges of “insulting a public officer.” In his testimony to the prosecutor in charge of press crimes, who summoned him to testify in the spring, Candar said his column did not include any insult and that he held no personal hostility toward the court. He added that even the judge allegedly insulted by his column had agreed with the conclusion that the courtroom lacked decorum and felt no need to proceed with the charges. Undeterred, the prosecutor filed the case on behalf of the judge. A court in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district accepted the indictment, but postponed Candar’s initial hearing to a new trial date of Dec. 13.

“It’s rubbish, what can I say?” Candar said. “That in Turkey, in the year 2010, this kind of threat should hang over freedom of expression is clearly ridiculous.”

Dink’s family has spoken out in support of Candar. The indictment opened against the columnist shows “the shameful face of Turkey,” Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink, said.

“Not the criminals but those who denounce the criminals are tried in this country,” said Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family, referring to Candar’s case. “Not the crime or the criminal but those who write about it are tried. This shows us how justice works in this country.”

Arzu Becerik, another lawyer for the Dink family said: “Everyone knows that those who ordered the murder are not [being tried] here. This is proven in many ways, but unfortunately those who voice these truths are punished.”