The son of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink responded to a letter written by arrested journalist Ahmet Şık after his detainment, calling him a source of hope and slamming the state and judiciary as “biased.”

“We never made our enemies through the state, and neither will we test our friends through it,” Arat Dink wrote.

In a letter he addressed to Dink from prison, Şık appealed: “My brother Arat, will you hug me as if you were hugging your father when we meet once again, given that I am apparently a member of the racist, fascist mentality that killed your father?”

Şık, who has long been seen as an opponent of coups, was arrested last weekend in connection to the alleged Ergenekon plot to overthrow the government.

“We recognize both our enemies and friends through our human point of view, our wording, our flesh,” Dink wrote in reply to Şık, adding that it was not the first time his beloved friends had been slandered. Dink also said the Turkish state and its powers were “biased,” as was the independence of the judiciary and the state’s wiretapping. “Their presumption of innocence is also biased. Everything of theirs is biased,” Dink wrote. “A policeman mentions assassination plans on the phone, they say it is necessary to exert his job. A journalist tries to report some news, they say he is a [terrorist] organization member.”

Dink told Şık he had been a source of hope, with his “words, actions and [sincere] endeavors,” Hurriyet Daily News reported.