Thousands of protesters gather outside the Agos newspaper to mark the eighth anniversary of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murder in İstanbul on Jan. 19. (Photo: AP)
As the investigation further deepens into the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, eyes are now on a senior police official who headed the intelligence department of Trabzon at the time of the killing after several of his underlings were arrested on charges of involvement in the murder.
Three police officials working under Engin Dinç in the intelligence department of the Trabzon Police Department were recently arrested as part of an expanded probe into the killing of Dink. Dinç has been promoted since then and is now one of the most senior officials at the head of police intelligence.
But whether the investigation will be extended to include him as a suspect remains a question. A news report published in the Taraf daily on Friday said the top state authorities have agreed not to allow him to be prosecuted even though testimonies of his associates point to his involvement as well.
A court overseeing the case postponed the trial to April. 28.
Police officials Ercan Demir, Özkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit have been arrested as part of the trial.
An İstanbul court arrested former Cizre Police Chief Ercan Demir, who turned himself in on Monday after an arrest warrant had been issued against him on Jan. 16.
Trabzon Police Department Assistant Commissioner Mumcu and Zenit were arrested on Jan. 13 on charges of negligence and misconduct in the murder of Dink.
Demir’s case raised curiosity as he had been appointed as head of the police department in the restive southeastern town of Cizre only a couple of weeks before an arrest warrant was issued against him.
Demir had been questioned as a suspect as part of the Dink murder investigation by prosecutors at the İstanbul Courthouse on Jan. 12, but a court released him pending trial. İstanbul prosecutors appealed the court’s decision and İstanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace issued an arrest warrant for Demir on Jan. 16 on charges of “negligence in preventing the murder.”
Taraf described the stalemate over Dinç’s questioning as a suspect in the murder case as a crisis reminiscent of a 2012 case, in which National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan was summoned by a prosecutor for questioning as a suspect in an investigation into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that encompasses the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The prosecutor had been investigating allegations that MİT agents were active agents within the KCK. But the summoning of Fidan angered President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, prime minister at the time, who swiftly pushed for legal changes that in turn protected Fidan from prosecution.
Taraf said Dinç might be obliged to testify as part of the case given the fact that the Dink family insists that the investigation include him as well. In such a case, it said, Dinç may quietly testify to the prosecutor, likely to be followed by a decision to drop charges against him.
Dink was shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager. The hit man, Ogün Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial. Since then, the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting Samast to commit murder.
The retrial process started in September 2014, when the İstanbul 5th High Criminal Court complied with a ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals in May 2013 overturning the lower court ruling that acquitted suspects in the Dink murder case of forming a terrorist organization. This decision paved the way for the trial of public officials on the charge of voluntary manslaughter.
There were also separate investigations going on, including in İstanbul and in Trabzon, in relation to Dink’s murder, and despite the Dink family lawyers’ demands, they were not merged. Toward the end of last year, they were finally combined.