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Turkey HDP Kurdish co-chair Demirtaş skips court hearing after not receiving indictment

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HDP co-chair Demirtaş

HDP co-chair Demirtaş

An arrested co-chair of Turkey’s third largest party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), did not participate in the first hearing of his “terrorism” case after prosecutors refused to share the indictment.

The first hearing of the case, in which Selahattin Demirtaş is charged with making terror propaganda and faces up to five years in prison, took place in the southern province of Adana on Nov. 17.

The guardian in the prison in which Demirtaş is being held captive in the northwestern province of Edirne told the courtroom that he would not be participating the hearing through the voice and video informatics system (SEGBİS). The guardian also said the necessary explanation for the decision would be given by his lawyers.

A number of lawyers participated in the hearing, which was held at the 2nd Adana Court of Serious Crimes. The hearing in the case was postponed until Jan. 10, 2017.

Ten HDP lawmakers, including co-chairs Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, were arrested in a probe launched against 14 of the party’s deputies over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Meanwhile, a HDP deputy from the southeastern province of Urfa criticized Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman “for remaining silent in the face of the operations.”

“What kind of parliamentary speaker are you? Your members are in jail and in solitary confinement and you say nothing,” Osman Baydemir said in parliament, adding that no charter or law could be legitimate when a party’s co-chairs are in jail.

“No one can say that the parliament is functioning when our co-chairs are in jail. No law or charter that’s going to be prepared will be legitimate,” he said.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-co-chair-demirtasskips-courthearing-afternot-receiving-indictment.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106237&NewsCatID=509

November/17/2016

Istanbul: Indictment against state officials in Dink murder case finally accepted

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dink12An indictment against public officials charged with misconduct and negligence in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 has finally been accepted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, after its second rejection last month.

The İstanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment two times to public prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü, who is overseeing the investigation, for allegedly including the names of pro-government police officers as suspects and demanding a prison sentence of up to 25 years for Police Chief Engin Dinç, one of the suspects.

Dinç, currently the head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit, led the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit at the time of Dink’s murder in 2007.

After its approval, the indictment was sent to the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court, which hears terror cases. The prosecutor, however, requested the trial be merged with the main Dink murder trial, held at the İstanbul 5th High Criminal Court.

The court has 15 days to either accept or reject the indictment.

The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office returned Kökçü’s first indictment on Oct. 19, on the grounds that the indictment was “deficient.” After changing the indictment, Kökçü sent a new version of the 150-page document to the prosecutor’s office on Oct. 21.

In the altered indictment, Kökçü requested that the investigation be merged with the trial of those accused of Dink’s assassination. In this trial Ogün Samast, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel stand accused.

On Nov. 2, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office returned the altered indictment to Kökçü, again, on the grounds that the indictment was still “deficient.” It has been claimed that the prosecutor’s office returned the indictment because it included Dinç, who is known to be close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), among other state officials who are suspected of being negligent and engaging in misconduct regarding the Dink murder.

According to the claims, the prosecutor’s office allegedly asked Kökçü to remove some names from the list of suspects. There were 25 state officials among the suspects in the investigation. Among those were Dinç, former İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah, former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Unit Chief Ahmet İlhan Güler, the former head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit Ramazan Akyürek and former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer. Those suspects face charges of “forming an organization to commit crime” and “voluntary manslaughter.”

Media reports revealed that Dinç testified to the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office secretly in September and that the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit received intelligence on a probable assassination of Dink in Trabzon, which was sent to İstanbul police in a letter on Feb. 17, 2006. “I also phoned the chief of the intelligence unit of the İstanbul Police Department about the information,” Dinç said in his testimony.

However, during the trial in December 2014, Cerrah and Güler stated in their testimonies that they had not received any intelligence about Dink’s assassination before the murder took place in 2007.

Dink was shot and killed in 2007 by Samast, an ultranationalist teenager. Later, Samast and 18 others were brought to trial. Hayal was sentenced to life in prison for inciting Samast to commit murder.

The retrial began in September 2014, when the İstanbul 5th High Criminal Court complied with a ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals from May 2013, which overturned a lower court’s ruling that acquitted the suspects in the Dink murder case of charges of forming a terrorist organization. This decision paved the way for the trial of public officials on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

Source: Zaman

Turkey: Indictment accepted for Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink’s murder case

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hrnt.thumbIstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office accepted an indictment against 26 suspects on Wednesday in the murder case of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink and referred it to Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, Daily Sabah reports.

The Criminal Court will decide whether to approve of the indictment or return it. In case of an approval, the 26 suspects will stand a trial at the court.

Terror and Organized Crimes Prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü submitted the indictment to Istanbul the Public Prosecutor’s Office in October, requesting the arrests of alleged suspects, for forming an organization to commit crimes, deliberate killing, and forgery on documents.

Suspects include the former Istanbul Police Department Chief, Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul Police Intelligence Department Head, Engin Dinç.

The indictment submitted by Kökçü for approval was returned two times by the prosecutor’s office due to incomplete documents, but was finally approved on Wednesday.

Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was shot dead by a teenager on Jan. 19, 2007 outside his office in Istanbul. Dink drew the ire of hardline Turkish nationalists in his lifetime, as he was one of the most outspoken voices calling for a debate to start on the controversial Armenian genocide issue. He received numerous death threats before his murder and faced several lawsuits for “denigrating Turkishness,” an act punishable with prison terms, for his articles and editorials on the mass deaths of Armenians in 1915.

The role of police officers and public officials in the plot to kill the Dink had come to light as a new investigation focused on an alleged cover-up of the murder by officials linked to the Gülen Movement, which is accused of attempts to overthrow the government.

Turkey: New indictment seeks lifetime imprisonment for Fethullah Gülen, others

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CİHAN photo

CİHAN photo

An indictment against 122 suspects, including U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen as one of the prime suspects, has been prepared in an investigation into the alleged creation of a fake terrorist group called Selam Tevhid, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Oct 26.

İrfan Fidan, Istanbul’s deputy chief public prosecutor, prepared an indictment regarding 122 suspects in the investigation into the fake terrorist group called Selam Tevhid and sent the indictment to Istanbul’s 14th Court of Serious Crimes, which will look into the indictment and decide whether or not to accept the investigation as a trial in the forthcoming 15 days.

Among the key suspects in the investigation, Gülen, journalist Emre Uslu and former chief of police Yurt Atayün are facing two aggravated life sentences and up to 67.5 years of jail time.

Gülen, Uslu and Atayün, as the main suspects in the case, are charged with “forming or managing an armed organization,” “obtaining confidential data that must be confidential for political spying purposes,” “attempting to topple the government of the Turkish Republic or preventing it from fully or partially conducting its duties,” “disrespecting the right to privacy,” “obtaining personal data illegally,” “forgery of official documents” and “effacing, concealing or altering criminal evidence.”

The other 119 suspects also face time in prison for similar charges.

The indictment, which was 10,529 pages long, also demanded the arrestment of Gülen and Uslu in absentia. Gülen has been self-exiled in the U.S. since the 1990s.

A total of 968 people, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and National Intelligence Agency (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, as well as a number of ministers and journalists, were listed as complainants in the indictment.

October/26/2015

Source: hurriyetdailynews.com

Turkey, Hrank Dink Case Public officials in the bill of indictment

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Hrant Dink, assassinated by Turks

Hrant Dink, assassinated by Turks

Many of the 25 public officials who are included in a bill of indictment as part of Dink case are accused of murder in the first degree, leadership or membership of an armed crime enterprise, destroying the official documents and some of them are accused of murder by omission and some others are accused of official misconduct.

On October 20, the prosecutor of The Bureau of Terror and Crime Organizations of İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office Gökalp Kürkçü prepared a bill of indictment about 25 public officials. In this bill of indictment, which might be added to the case that is tried by Istanbul 5th High Penal Court, it is demanded that 25 public officials stand trial.

Cerrah, Güler, etc.

Provincial Police Chief of Istanbul Celalettin Cerrah, Chief of Intelligence Office of Provincial Security Directorate of Istanbul Ahmet İlhan Güler, Provincial Police Chief of Trabzon Reşat Altay, Chief of Intelligence Office of Provincial Security Directorate of Trabzon Faruk Sarı are among the public officials that are demanded to be on trial.

Many of the 25 public officials who are included in the bill of indictment of Dink case are accused of murder in the first degree, leadership or membership of an armed crime enterprise, destroying the official documents and some of them are accused of murder by omission and some others are accused of official misconduct.

Prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü sent the bill of indictment to İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for approval. If it would be approved by İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it would be sent to Istanbul 5th High Penal Court which will start the trials of these public officials if it accepts the bill of indictment.

Turkey’s intelligence office’s (MİT) position

One of the lawyers of Dink family, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu said, in his previous statements, that the officials from Provincial Security Directorate of Istanbul and Governorship of Istanbul haven’t taken protection measures, though they had information about the assassination plan; officials from Provincial Security Directorate of Trabzon and Provincial Gendarmerie Command of Trabzon haven’t conducted operations against the crime organization which was planning Dink’s assassination and the officials from the Directorate of Intelligence haven’t organized these processes of taking protection measures and conducting operations. He added that these officials facilitated the assassination by willfully omitting their responsibilities.

Source: Agos

Kosovo Figures Face Prosecution For War Crimes

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Senior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) face indictment by a special EU court for alleged killings, abductions, and sexual violence.

The threat of indictments comes in a report published on July 29 in Brussels by Clint Williamson, a prosecutor appointed by the European Union to investigate ethnic cleansing committed in Kosovo during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Williamson said the suspects bear responsibility for a campaign of persecution directed at minority populations and Kosovo Albanians believed to be political opponents of the UCK leadership.

Many former UCK commanders went on to leadership positions after Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

Williamson also said there were “compelling indications” that up to 10 captives were killed to have their organs harvested for illegal trafficking during the war.

However, he said the level of evidence is not yet sufficient to prosecute the alleged crimes.

Based on reporting by “The Guardian” and AP