Turkey: 26 police officers to stand trial in Dink case

December 16, 2015 By administrator

Hürriyet Photo

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency,

An indictment of the investigation into negligence of public officials in the killing of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul has been approved by the court.

A total of 26 police officers, including both current and former police chiefs, will be tried as the indictment in the nine-year-long investigation into negligence of public employees in the shooting death of Dink was recognized by the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes on Dec. 15 following its Dec. 9 approval by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The 26 police officers were charged with one count each of “forming or heading an armed terrorist group,” “membership of an armed terrorist group,” “power abuse on duty,” “manipulating, destroying and/or concealing official documents,” “deliberate murder,” “fabricating official documents by public employees” and “deliberate murder on negligence” in the case filed into negligence of public officials at the time of the assassination. All of the 26 were on duty at the time of Dink’s murder.

The move comes a week after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 9 approved the indictment prepared against the 26 police officers into “negligence on public duty” in the shooting death of Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007.

The indictment prepared by prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü was presented to the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes after it had been rejected by deputy chief prosecutor Orhan Kapıcı twice.

Having been rejected twice before, lawyers representing the Dink family expressed the reaction against the indictment in the investigation returning to Kökçü. The return means that cases will likely not be opened against the suspects.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü in early November, arguing that “evidence of voluntary manslaughter concerning some of the suspects was not revealed.”

However, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, a Dink family lawyer, said on Nov. 4 that not opening a case against former police chiefs Ahmet İlhan Güler, Celalettin Cerrah, Reşat Altay, Engin Dinç and other suspects, would exclude their integral responsibility in Dink’s murder.

Recalling the first two versions of the indictment, the latest one drafted in late October, Bakırcıoğlu said the two indictments charged former police chiefs Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ramazan Akyürek, Tamer Bülent Demirel and Osman Gülbel each with “voluntary manslaughter,” Engin Dinç, Reşat Altay and Ahmet İlhan Güler each with “voluntary manslaughter due to negligence” and Sabri Uzun and Celalettin Cerrah each with “malpractice.”

“Despite resistance and barriers in front of the interrogation and investigation of public servants who took part in Dink’s murder, they were interrogated and investigated by the prosecutor [in charge of the case],” Bakırcıoğlu said.

All the names of the suspects implicated in the investigation were reported to have been on duty in police departments in Istanbul, Ankara and the Black Sea province of Trabzon at the time of Dink’s murder.

Dink was shot dead outside his office building in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007, by 17-year-old Ogün Samast.

Relatives and followers of the case have claimed government officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting their duty to protect the journalist.

December/16/2015

Iraq army leaders to face trial for surrender to ‘Islamic State’ in Ramadi

August 16, 2015 By administrator

The Iraqi prime minister has approved the court martial of several top commanders for withdrawing from the city of Ramadi last year. This move allowed for the swift takeover of the city by “Islamic State.”

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi approved on Sunday the investigative council’s recommendation to court-martial military commanders who abandoned the positions attacking “Islamic State” (IS) militants in Ramadi.

In a statement from his office, Abadi said the government would refer “a number of the leaders to the military judiciary for leaving their positions without orders and contrary to instructions (and) despite the issuance of a number of orders not to withdraw.”

Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province, fell to the extremists in mid-May of 2014, dampening Baghdad’s hopes of quickly routing the militants from its north and west. In June the country’s second city of Mosul also fell to the militia, leading to the further collapse of the government army.

According to a senior British military officer, Brigadier Christopher Ghika, Ramadi was lost solely because “the Iraqi commander…elected to withdraw.”

With the national military greatly weakened, Baghdad has had to rely on the help of Shiite militias funded and assisted by former foe Iran to defend the capital and try to regain the large swaths of land lost to “IS.” Ahead of the fall of Ramadi, Abadi had wanted to keep militias on the sidelines in Anbar so as not to deepen sectarian tensions with the country’s Sunni population, which often complains of being marginalized.

In recent months, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias have managed to recapture much of the ground seized by IS, though the majority of Anbar province remains under its control.

es/bk (AFP, Reuters)

The Turkish Association of Human Rights seeking admission at trial Perinçek

January 26, 2015 By administrator

ASSOCIATION (Turkish) OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE TRUTH AND JUSTICE CENTER MEMORY CALL ADMISSION AS INTERVENER IN THE TRIAL Perincek

January 28, 2015, will start the review of Perincek v / Switzerland by the Grand Chamber, whose powers the European Court of Human Rights are those of a Court of Appeal.

It is well known now that in 2005, Dogu Perinçek had traveled to Switzerland, a country that has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide and passed a law criminalizing the denial, and made in Bern and Lausanne statements denying Genocide Armenian, manufacturing according to him. In 2007, Perinçek had been found guilty of deliberately violating national law and was sentenced by the court in Lausanne. His appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed, he brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favor in 2008 [2013] and decided that the court in Lausanne had violated the right to expression, a right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights in Article 10.

The Association of Human Rights sent a letter to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice in 2014, explaining that the denial of the Armenian Genocide incites hostility towards Armenians and asking her to do call Switzerland the decision of the ECHR. Subsequently, the appeal of Switzerland and its request was accepted in June 2014.

The first hearing of that review will take place on 28 January 2015.

The Turkish Association of Human Rights joined the Truth Justice Memory Center and the International Institute for the Study of Genocide and The Toronto Human Rights to appeal to the ECHR in July and Party present a Notice of Joint Kit, that is to say, to be admitted as an intervener. The ECHR has given the request of the three human rights organizations favorably.

We explained this issue in Turkey, the denial of the Armenian Genocide incites racial hatred and encourages anti-Armenian groups. Neither the decision of the ECHR nor the case we presented under joint part relate the historical reality of the massacres of 1915-1917 or precise definition. The bottom of the approach is the fact that the statements are Perinçek footprints racism and discrimination. In this sense, the review by the Grand Chamber is of particular importance as a precedent addressing the denial, minimization and justification in a separate context of the Holocaust.

The decision of the ECHR is held to the effects of denial and discrimination solely on the Swiss Armenians and overlooked the fact that Perincek’s leader Talat Pasha Committee and that the denial of genocide as an international lie, even proclaimed in Lausanne, is a direct charge against the Armenians of Turkeys. We have therefore supported in our file the statements of Perincek do not end in a qualifying event, they constitute the crime of discrimination, and have said that the decision should take into account the position of Perincek political player leading in Turkey, head of the Workers’ Party and leader of Talat Pasha Committee – and the goals and actions of the Committee.

That’s right, the act was considered criminal under Swiss law was committed on Swiss soil, but the Talat Pasha Committee and its leaders, which include Perincek, are in Turkey the authors of acts aimed at the Turkish society. The recipients of their message – those who listen to the Armenians should expect to requests for clarification and trouble, even if they are on the other side of the earth – it was the Turkish society. The hostility against Armenians and in respect of other non-Muslim peoples was fueled in this Turkish company which is intended this message for generations. Reflections and anti-Armenian sentiments were exacerbated throughout the history of the republic, the Permanent dogma, dissemination in the mass media and indoctrination in education, the notion that the eradication of population and the empire’s Armenian civilization is a lie.

Holocaust denial is not only in statements like “there was no genocide.” Denial requires justification irreversible and unforgivable eradication of a people: the notion that “it is the Armenians who are responsible for the events”, ie the Armenians deserved their eradication, they have “stabbed the Turks in the back, “and collaborated with the enemy, has always been and still is constantly repeated in the classes, lectures at universities in the series and TV shows, and books.

Hostility towards Armenians is not only limited to speech; it takes lives. In such a context of discrimination and ethnic hatred, Armenians were attacked and Hrant Dink, the founder and director of Agos, was the victim of a murder whose perpetrators must always be presented to a court. Armenian military Sevag Sahin Balikci was killed in 2011 by another soldier in Batman, where he was doing his military service, on the day of April 24, World Remembrance Day marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The conditions in which took place the killer trial provoked public skepticism, while the press reported that commanders had put pressure on the military that they may witness the incident was “an accident.” In addition, the “event for Khojaly” of 27 February 2012, which was held in Taksim Square, chaired by the Minister of the Interior, banners that read “You are all Armenians, you are all bastards “were deployed. In the space of two months between 2012 and 2013, in the district of Samatya Istanbul, home to many Armenians, many elderly Armenian women were attaquées- Maritsa Kucuk is one of them, his bones were broken in several places his entire body larded stabbing. And 23 February 2014, banners saying “Long live Ogun Samasts, that Hrant Dink be damned” were brandished, without opposition, in front of Agos newspaper.

In total, the denial of genocide is the essential basis, the most fundamental basis of the threat to the existence of Armenians in Turkey, a threat that the state admits.

As associations of human rights that were direct witnesses and reconciled acts and declarations of incitement to ethnic hatred, we, the Association of Human Rights and the Truth Justice Memory Center, consider it our duty, our purpose and our field of action to present our findings to the European Court of Human Rights in order to contribute to a good and right decision.

Finally, we stress once again: the negation causes hatred and hatred kills. We defend the inalienable right to live in safety, without fear of tomorrow, and hope that the European Court of Human Rights will in the name of fundamental human rights, impede the speech that incites acts contrary to this inalienable right.

January 23, 2015,

INSAN Haklari DERNEGI

Hakikat ADALET Hafıza MERKEZI

Translation for Gilbert Béguian Armenews

Monday, January 26, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

Gyumri massacre suspect to be tried under Russian law: official

January 21, 2015 By administrator

Valery Permyakov, the Russian soldier who is the main suspect in the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, will be tried in court according to the laws of the Russian Federation, Russian president’s spokesman said, according to Civilnet.

“Because he is a citizen of Russia, it’s natural that he should be tried according to Russian laws and by a Russian court. It is necessary to note that the leader of the Russian Investigative Committee is working in Gyumri and he has been tasked by the Russian president to work together with Armenian investigators. However, there will be a Russian trial and for such a monstrous crime, Russian law is absolutely merciless,” Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Galatv.am on January 20.

That same day, Alexander Bastrykin, Head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation had a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Aghvan Hovsepyan and President Serzh Sargsyan.

During that meeting Serzh Sargsyan said that the Gyumri tragedy required steadfastness and “unprecedented consistency” to disclose all the details. He went on to stress that the law enforcement bodies of both Armenia and Russia must continue cooperating effectively to ensure a logical end to the process.

In the early morning hours of January 12, six members of the Avetisyan family were shot in their home and their six-month-old infant Seryozha Avetisyan was stabbed. The accused is Russian soldier Valery Permyakov stationed at the 102nd Russian Military Base in Gyumri. Permyakov was apprehended by Russian military personnel while trying to cross the Armenian-Turkish border. He is currently being held in custody at the Russian base. On January 14 and 15 protests took place in Gyumri and Yerevan demanding that the accused be handed over to Armenian authorities to stand trial in an Armenian court. On January 19, Seryozha Avetisyan succumbed to his injuries and died in hospital in Yerevan. A requiem service for the infant took place on January 20 in Gyumri.

Photo: RIA Novosti

Related links:

Galatv Interview with Dmitry Peskov

Civilnet. ‘Armenian Territory’ but Russian Trial

Turkey Judge hushes up Erdoğan’s link to al-Qadi in hearing into bugging case

January 3, 2015 By administrator

The hearing at a trial on Friday into the planting of a bugging device in current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s prime ministerial office back in 2011 was marred by the judge’s interference into the suspect’s testimony, which hinted that Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman who was on the UN and US terror lists for financing al-Qaeda, was a special guest of Erdoğan for two months.

The trial of 12 police officers and a former senior member of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) began on Friday at the Ankara 7th High Criminal Court.

Mehmet Sürer, the defense attorney of Serhat Demir, a suspect in the case and a police officer who was assigned to the protective detail of Erdoğan, asked Mehmet Yüksel and Zeki Bulut, former chiefs of the Prime Ministry’s protective services, to disclose the secret assignment given to Demir for two months in İstanbul.

When police chief Yüksel stood up to respond to the question under cross-examination by defense attorney Sürer, the judge, Hüseyin Karamanoğlu, immediately intervened and asked the suspect to not disclose that information, citing state secrecy rules.

In an interview with the liberal Taraf daily a while back, Demir revealed that he had been assigned to protect Qadi for two months. Qadi was barred from entering Turkey at the time by a Cabinet decision pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions. Yet, a corruption investigation into Erdoğan’s son revealed that Qadi entered Turkey illegally under the protection of Erdoğan and met with Erdoğan, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan and others.

In the hearing on Monday, Demir said he was originally assigned to accompany Erdoğan’s special guest in İstanbul for a week but that he had to stay there longer when the guest’s stay was extended by two months. He was prevented from disclosing Qadi’s name in the hearing by the judge.

Emre Uslu, a security analyst, said Demir’s name was added to the government-orchestrated sham trial into the bugging incident because “he is a police officer who, after being asked by Erdoğan, took Yasin al-Qadi from Saudi Arabia to İstanbul, served as his guard during his stay in İstanbul and was aware of his meetings there with a number of authorities, including MİT head Hakan Fidan.”

Police investigators and prosecutors who inquired into the controversial activities of Qadi, who was listed as a financial supporter of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization by the US until very recently, were all reassigned, removed or even fired from their positions.

The botched corruption investigation revealed that Qadi entered Turkey seven times before his name was taken off the US and UN lists of those suspected of supporting terrorist activities. He entered Turkey without any paperwork at various airports, where he arrived on his private jet with the full knowledge and protection of the Prime Ministry. He was also given an official vehicle, a protection officer and a driver by the Prime Ministry, according to a leaked police investigation file. According to the file, Qadi and then-Prime Minister Erdoğan had 12 meetings in Turkey.

Fidan also met with Qadi five times in İstanbul and Ankara during a period when he was not supposed to be allowed into Turkey.

The 13 suspects in the current bugging case face charges of wiretapping Erdoğan for the aim of political espionage, violating the privacy of interpersonal communication and recording interpersonal conversation without permission. In their indictment, the prosecutors seek up to 36 years in prison for the suspects. It states that conversations in the office of President Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time, were illegally monitored via bugging devices between Nov. 24, 2011 and Dec. 29, 2011.

Prosecutor Durak Çetin submitted the indictment to the court in November 2014, requesting an arrest warrant for 12 police officers who were detained on June 14 and former TÜBİTAK Deputy President Hasan Palaz. Palaz — who was first a witness but is now a suspect in the case — had earlier argued that TÜBİTAK had been pressured to issue a report stating that the bugs had been planted on a specific date.

During their interrogation at the prosecutor’s office, the police officers suspected of installing a bugging device in Erdoğan’s Ankara office denied any link to a device that was found during examinations of the Prime Ministry conducted by MİT three years ago.

The investigation into the spying started two-and-a-half years ago and the prosecutor of the case has been changed three times. No concrete evidence against the suspects has been found. The 72-page indictment in the case is based on newspaper clippings from government dailies, a report by MİT, a report by the Prime Ministry’s Inspection Board and the statements of a secret witness who reportedly works at a company that sells bugging devices.

Apart from the bugging device found in Erdoğan’s office at the Prime Ministry, the former prime minister announced on live TV on Dec. 22, 2012 that bugging devices had also been found in the office at his Ankara home. He did not specify when the devices were found. “Security units [the police] found those devices. They were placed inside the office in my house. Such things have occurred despite all measures having been taken to prevent them,” he said.

Bülent Korucu, a Turkish analyst who is closely following the case, said the indictment is ridden with deficiencies.

He said the prosecutor’s office was first notified of the incident on Feb. 24, 2012. Although the prosecutor’s office requested evidence which could be used for a judicial investigation, the Prime Ministry sent it on Jan. 13, 2014. “The Prime Ministry Monitoring Council [BTK] is said to have conducted the investigation. Yet the case involves a full-fledged judicial crime. It is unlawful to have the BTK conduct a judicial investigation. The BTK is not the authority to conduct an administrative investigation and is not authorized to perform a judicial investigation,” Korucu said.

Korucu also noted that the BTK was ordered to conduct the investigation on Dec. 25, 2012, i.e., exactly one year after the bugs were found on Dec. 24-25, 2011. He also questioned the most serious charge in the indictment, which is espionage for political purposes. “But we cannot find the elements of the offense in the indictment. There are no recordings and there is no information about the country for which this espionage was conducted. The only argument is that there are many foreign missions near the prime minister’s official residence. The suggestion is that these embassies are very close to the residence and can eavesdrop on the prime minister,” Korucu explained.

“The indictment falls short of substantiating the alleged crimes. It cannot establish a link between the evidence and the suspects. There are no fingerprints, no witnesses, no video recording or sound files which are said to have been recorded. It is not known who bought the devices and from where. It must have been a real challenge for the prosecutor to make up a crime and a criminal organization out of so many missing items,” he said.

During the hearing, the police officers suspected of installing a bugging device in Erdoğan’s Ankara office denied any link with a device that was found during examinations of the Prime Ministry conducted by MİT. The hearing also witnessed a procedural violation in which the judge did not order that the indictment be read out aloud in the courtroom. The judge also barred entry into the courtroom after the resumption of the hearing, which is only possible if a judge’s decision is present indicating it is a secret hearing; this, however, was not the case.

Turkish soccer fans go on trial over coup accusations

December 16, 2014 By administrator

Thirty-five Turkish soccer fans went on trial on Tuesday accused of attempting to stage a coup during mass protests last year, in a case the opposition and rights groups say is an abuse of the justice system by a government bent on revenge, Reuters reports.

Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for all of them, from a supporters’ group of major Istanbul team Besiktas. They are accused of helping organize the protests that erupted in Istanbul’s Taksim square in May 2013 and grew into a major challenge to then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, who won a presidential election in August, has vowed to hunt down the “traitors” behind the protests and a corruption scandal which emerged just over six months later, both of which he cast as an orchestrated bid to topple him.

The trial began two days after Turkey drew international criticism for the detention by police of prominent media figures in what Erdogan said was a response to “dirty operations” by his political enemies.

The indictment accuses the soccer fans of seeking to occupy Erdogan’s Istanbul office near the Besiktas stadium “to create the appearance that a weakness of authority had emerged in the country”, and of drawing foreign media to the protest areas.

“They tried to create an image evoking government changes in some Middle Eastern countries known as the ‘Arab Spring’ and aimed to overthrow the legally established government of the Turkish Republic using illegal methods,” the indictment said, according to Reuters.

The ‘Carsi’ supporters group played a prominent role in the protests, which drew a diverse crowd of hundreds of thousands across Turkey. An anti-police slogan chanted at matches rang out regularly and at one point Carsi members commandeered a mechanical digger and drove it toward police lines.

The unrest began as a peaceful protest against the demolition of Gezi Park, a leafy corner of Taksim, but spread nationwide after a brutal police crackdown. Prosecutors have since launched a series of court cases against those involved.

“The make-up of the AK Party government has run and its true face has emerged. The Carsi trial is the revenge for Gezi,” said Umut Oran, an Istanbul MP for the main opposition CHP, whose members ripped up a copy of the indictment outside the court.

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch said the prosecution was a “blatant misuse of the criminal justice system”.

“Charging these Besiktas football club fans as enemies of the state for joining a public protest is a ludicrous travesty,” HRW Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said in a statement.

“It reveals a great deal about the enormous pressure being exerted on Turkey’s justice system by the government,” she said, calling for the prosecutor to ask the court for an acquittal.

Retrial of military officers accused of plotting coup starts in Turkey

November 3, 2014 By administrator

The retrial of 236 military officers accused of plotting a coup to overthrow the government of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan began Monday, Nov 3, months after the country’s highest court ruled that the suspects’ right to a fair trial had been violated, the Associated Press reports.

In 2012, a total of 326 officers were convicted of plotting to overthrow the country’s Islamic-based government in 2003 in a plot dubbed “Sledgehammer,” receiving sentences of up to 20 years imprisonment.

In June, Turkey’s constitutional court ordered many of the officers released pending a retrial.

The original trial helped curtail the military’s hold on Turkish politics, but the case was marred by the suspects’ long pre-trial confinement and judicial flaws, including allegations of fabricated evidence.

AP. Retrial begins in Turkey of alleged coup plot

Turkey: Dink murder trial takes new turn as court to focus on ‘criminal organization’ claims

October 30, 2014 By administrator

ISTANBUL

The Friends of Hrant Dink Association issued a public statement in front of Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse on Oct. 30. AA Photo

The trial into the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has taken a significant turn after the court in Istanbul overseeing the case announced that it will focus on the “criminal organization” allegations against suspects, a move that lawyers representing the victim’s family had demanded since the start of the retrial. Report Hurriyet

Istanbul’s 5th High Criminal Court ruled on Oct. 30 in line with a previous Supreme Court of Appeals decision that overturned the verdict of the initial trial process, on the grounds that it overlooked investigating the murder of the renowned editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos in the context of a planned and organized crime.

According to the decision, the suspects will be retried on charges of being a member of a criminal organization.

The Supreme Court of Appeals had also overturned the acquittals of top suspects including Yasin Hayal, who was charged with being the instigator of the assassination and the “leader of a terrorist organization.” Hayal and other suspects, such as Erhan Tuncel and Ersin Yolcu, are also being retried.

The triggerman Ogün Samast, who was sentenced to 22 years by a children’s court, is also likely to be tried on new charges, as the court ruled to associate his case with the main murder trial. Samast was only 17-years-old when he shot Dink in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

However, lawyers have also been wary of the Supreme Court verdict, as it defined the aim of the murder as a “political act,” rather than an act of terrorism, as they have claimed that an armed terror organization was behind the killing. For a murder to be considered a “terrorist act,” it would have to be committed with a clear aim against the state of the public order, according to the Turkish Penal Code.

Lawyers previously said they would try to prove that the activities of the organization went beyond the assassination of Dink.

The ruling comes only a few days after the Justice Ministry cleared the path for investigations into nine civil servants, including senior police officers occupying key posts at the time of the murder, such as the former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah. The officers had been accused of negligence and threatening Dink before his death.

The Friends of Hrant Dink Association hailed the decision in a statement issued in front of the Istanbul courthouse Oct. 30, while demanding that the civil servants be charged with “murder.”

Dink’s lawyers have long been demanded that the investigation should focus on the “real web of connections” that led to Dink’s murder, while expressing few expectations from the retrial.

The matter was even subject to a review by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which ruled that the case had not been efficiently investigated and the rights of Dink’s family were violated.

October/30/2014

Turkey, Trial against Erol Özkoray: decision expected on June 17

May 22, 2014 By administrator

Today was held the trial against the journalist and writer Erol Özkoray for “insulting the Prime Minister Erdogan” in his book Gezi Phenomenon “The Phenomenon Gezi”.

According to a witness on the spot, the meeting would be held “correct” way. A decision is expected by June 17.

The Istanbul prosecutor in charge of press affairs and publications had requested a sentence of up to 32 months in prison against the writer.