The verdict has been announced in the trial of public officials regarding the murder of Agos Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink.
At the hearing at the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, after the last words of the defendants were taken, the court board announced its decision.
Accordingly, the delegation sentenced the detained defendants, former police chiefs Ramazan Akyürek and Ali Fuat Yılmazer, to aggravated life imprisonment separately for the crime of “deliberate killing by design”. The accused Yılmazer was also sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for “destroying the official document”, and Akyürek was sentenced to 5 years 7 months and 15 days for “destroying the official document” and 7 years and 6 months for “forgery of official documents”.
The delegation sentenced the detained defendant, former officer Muharrem Demirkale, to two life sentences on charges of “violating the Constitution” and “deliberately helping to kill”.
The delegation sentenced the detained defendants Okan Şimşek and Veysal Şahin to 25 years each for “deliberate killing” and 3 years and four months for “forgery of official documents”, and Ali Öz, the former Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Commander, who had a judicial control decision, sentenced the detained suspect Ercan Gün to 10 years in prison for “being a member of an armed terrorist organization” within the scope of FETO.
The delegation, which decided to acquit the pending defendants, former Istanbul Intelligence Branch Director Ahmet İlhan Güler, and then Trabzon Intelligence Branch Manager Engin Dinç of “killing by negligent act”, to drop the case file against them on the charge of “neglect of public duty” due to the statute of limitations, It ruled that the case file against President Sabri Uzun and the then Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah be dropped due to the statute of limitations.
The court decided that the fugitive defendants, for whom an arrest warrant was issued, FETO ringleader Fetullah Gülen, Adem Yavuz Arslan, Ekrem Dumanlı, Coşgun Çakar, Halil İbrahim Koca, Mehmet Akif Yılmaz, Mehmet Faruk Mercan, Metin Canbay, Ömer Faruk Kartin, Serkan Şahan, Yılmaz Angın, Yunus Yazar and Zekeriya Öz since their defense could not be obtained, it decided to separate their files.
Statement from the Dink Family: It Is Not Possible For The Trial To Convince Us And The Public
After the decision, the Dink Family made a statement. In the statement, “We, as his family, with his friends and lawyers, and with the strength of our friends who shouldered Hrant Dink’s coffin; We will never stop our efforts to understand, explain and our legal struggle. Until the whole mechanism is uncovered and rendered unusable.”
After the decision, the Dink Family issued a written statement. Here is the description:
“Hrant Dink was murdered treacherously on January 19, 2007, in the heart of Istanbul, in front of his newspaper Agos, with two bullets fired from his back.
The murder took place after a three-year targeting and threatening process involving the General Staff, politicians, the judiciary, the media and some state-controlled so-called non-governmental organizations.
A week before he was killed, the murdered person left a note for all of us that was written, “Why was I targeted?” and in his last speeches, he explained with these words: “This is an operation of the depth of the state to show me my place.” No event, person or relationship that Hrant Dink mentioned in this last article has been included in the investigation for 14 years. Moreover, while many things he mentioned in his article with his testimony and intuitions were later proved with documents…
The operation did not end in killing; continued with negligence, cover-up, blackout of evidence and misdirection.
It is not possible for a trial that does not address all this mechanism to convince us and the public.
Today’s decision is far from this truth. It is very difficult to understand and explain some disproportionate provisions of acquittal and punishment, even in themselves. Especially there are some decisions; it is as if the evil itself is not punished, but its infiltration gives the impression of being punished.
At the point where the trial has come, it is said that the foci defined as FETÖ, who killed hundreds of our people and injured thousands of them with a vile operation on July 15, 2016, also killed our Hrant in 2007.
If this is true, if the effective investigation that we have sought and demanded from the very beginning had been carried out in a timely manner, we would not have lost so much in 10 years. In this case, shouldn’t the account for not investigating the murder of Hrant Dink in a timely manner be given to the families and relatives of hundreds of people?
In today’s environment where the reputation of the judiciary is on the ground, which court can get a fair decision? Of course, this environment is comforting for criminals… Unfortunately, the climate and ideology prevailing in the years when Hrant Dink was targeted and the murder was committed still prevails today. What truth and justice can one talk about in such an environment? Can anyone come out today and say, “Being an Armenian had no effect on the killing of Hrant Dink”? How can racism, which has penetrated into the capillaries of this mechanism, be denied?
If this case is closed as it is, the deep state mechanism of the years is referred to as FETO and an effective investigation is not carried out, who will be responsible for the other lives lost in the years to come? Just as the murderer was a child, both FETÖ and Ergenekon are children. The mechanism is much older. This mechanism must not be allowed to continue to take other lives.
Establishing a climate of transparency, democracy and law as soon as possible is a need for all of us like air, bread, water. Ultimately, what is hoped for is a confrontation: society confronts this crime, the criminal faces his guilt, and the institutions learn the necessary lesson.
We, as his family, with his friends and lawyers, and with the strength of our friends who shouldered Hrant Dink’s coffin; We will never stop our efforts to understand, explain and our legal struggle. Until the whole mechanism is exposed and rendered unusable” (Agos)
