The name of former prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, who was discharged on charges of being a member of the Gülen movement—which is led by US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen—and has fled Turkey, has been included in the indictment of the case into the murder of Istanbul Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
The indictment stated that Öz had telephonic conversations with Muharrem Demirkale, commander of the gendarmerie intelligence that was surveilling Dink’s murderer Ogün Samast, a day before and a day after the murder, according to Milliyet daily of Turkey.
Also, Zekeriya Öz had been at the scene at the time of the murder, and kept track of how the murder was taking place.
Muharrem Demirkale is under arrest.
Hrant Dink, the founder and chief editor of Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul, was gunned down on January 19, 2007 in front of then office of Agos.
In 2011, the perpetrator, Ogün Samast, was sentenced by a juvenile court to 22 years and ten months for the murder.
After long court proceedings and appeals, however, a new probe was ultimately launched in this murder case, and regarding numerous former and serving senior Turkish officials’ complicity in this assassination.