Signs and flowers are laid on the sidewalk in Osmanbey, İstanbul, to commemorate Armenian- Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. (Photo: Cİhan)
A prosecutor is seeking 25 years’ imprisonment for Engin Dinç, the head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit, on charges of negligence in the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
The details of the indictment prepared by public prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü, who is overseeing an ongoing investigation into state officials facing charges of misconduct and negligence in the murder of Dink, were recently revealed to media outlets.
According to the details of the indictment, Dinç, who was leading the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit at the time of Dink’s murder in 2007, former Trabzon Police Chief Reşat Altay and former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Unit Chief Ahmet İlhan Güler should be tried under Article 83 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) dealing with negligence causing death due to the failure to take appropriate action to prevent the death, which is punishable by up to 25 years imprisonment.
There are 25 state officials among the suspects in the investigation, including Dinç, Güler, Altay, former İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah, former National Police Department Intelligence Unit head Sabri Uzun, former National Police Department’s intelligence unit head Ramazan Akyürek and former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer. Those suspects face charges of “forming an organization to commit crime,” “voluntary manslaughter,” “negligence” and “misconduct.”
It was also revealed that the prosecutor is seeking life sentences for Yılmazer and Akyürek and a year in prison for Cerrah and Uzun in the indictment.
However, earlier claims in the media stated the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü last Tuesday on the grounds that the indictment was “lacking.” After editing the indictment, Kökçü allegedly sent a new version of the 150-page document to the prosecutor’s office the day after.
The prosecutor’s office returned the indictment allegedly because the indictment included Dinç, who is known to be close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), among other state officials who are suspected of having engaged in negligence and 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 although it is uncertain if he did.
Dinç is still operating as the head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit. He worked as the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit between Aug. 26, 2004 and Sept. 19, 2007. Several controversial incidents took place in Trabzon province during his period. The attempt of a local group to lynch members of the Association for Inmates’ Families’ Solidarity (TAYAD) during a demonstration held in Trabzon in 2005, a bomb attack on a McDonald’s restaurant in Trabzon in 2004 and the murder of Catholic Priest Andrea Santoro of the Sancta Maria Catholic Church by an ultranationalist teenager in Trabzon in 2006 were among those controversial incidents that took place during Dinç’s period.
Erhan Tuncel, who is a key suspect in the Dink murder, was among the perpetrators of the bomb attack on McDonald’s in 2004. However, Tuncel was allegedly kept outside of the investigation that was conducted into the bomb attack. He was then appointed as an informant working for the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit.
In a petition filed by Hakan Bakırcıoğlu — the lawyer for the Dink family — with the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Aug. 10, he asked the prosecutor’s office to try Dinç under Article 83. The lawyer claimed in the petition that Dinç had been aware of the intelligence that Yasin Hayal — another key suspect in the Dink murder — was planning to assassinate Dink as of Feb. 15, 2006 but did not send an official written statement to the Trabzon governor of that period, the Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Trabzon provincial gendarmerie commander or the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to warn them about the possible murder. Bakırcıoğlu also said Dinç neither informed the higher authorities about the preparations for the murder of Dink nor he conducted any operation against those who were planning the assassination to prevent the attack from taking place.
As the investigation into Dink’s murder deepened, eyes turned to Dinç, after several people working under him were arrested on charges of involvement in the murder.
Three police officers who worked under Dinç in the intelligence unit of the Trabzon Police Department — Ercan Demir, Özkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit — were arrested in January as part of an expanded probe into Dink’s murder. Trabzon Police Department Deputy Commissioner Mumcu and Zenit were arrested on Jan. 13 on charges of negligence and misconduct in Dink’s murder. An İstanbul court arrested former Cizre Police Chief Demir, who turned himself in on Feb. 23 after a warrant for his detention was issued on Jan. 16.
Dinç has since been promoted and is now chief of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit.
After the arrested police officials implicated Dinç, Kökçü twice summoned him to testify as part of the investigation as a suspect. However, Dinç did not go to the prosecutor’s office to testify. The media reports at that time claimed that Kökçü wanted to arrest Dinç over his suspected role in the Dink murder, but the government was disturbed by Kökçü’s intention and prevented Dinç from going to the prosecutor’s office to testify.
Dink was shot and killed by Ogün Samast, an ultranationalist teenager, in 2007. 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, Hayal, was sentenced to life in prison for inciting Samast to commit murder.
The retrial 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 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