(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, a lawyer representing the family of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, has claimed that İstanbul Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Orhan Kapıcı returned an indictment to him for removal of the names of three suspects, among them the National Police Department’s intelligence unit head, Engin Dinç.
An indictment that had already been revised by Gökalp Kökçü, the public prosecutor overseeing an ongoing investigation of state officials who face charges of misconduct and negligence in the murder of Dink in 2007, was again returned to Bakırcıoğlu by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in November for allegedly including some pro-government police officers as suspects and demanding a prison sentence of up to 25 years for Dinç.
Bakırcıoğlu claimed on Friday that the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office wants to protect the three suspects whose names were mentioned in the indictment prepared by prosecutor Kökçü. “The actual reason why these indictments are being returned to the public prosecutor is because they want [Kökçü] to prepare an indictment that won’t include the names of Reşat Altay, Engin Dinç and Ahmet İlhan Güler,” Bakırcıoğlu said.
After Kapıcı returned the indictment, Bakırcıoğlu filed a petition to the Terrorism and Organized Crime Bureau of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and informed them of Kapıcı’s justification that there isn’t enough evidence to support the claims filed against Altay, Dinç and Güler. Bakırcıoğlu added that the decision to return the indictment has no legal basis and it is against the law. He also said in the petition there is sufficient evidence to support claims filed against the suspects.
Bakırcıoğlu explained that only a court can return an indictment to the prosecutor who prepared it, in accordance with Article 174 of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK), which includes the article on returning indictments. “The indictment, dated Oct. 20, 2015 and prepared by prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü, must be submitted to the İstanbul 5th High Criminal Court as it is,” Bakırcıoğlu said.
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, Yasin 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 May 2013 ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals, 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.