Police Officers Testifying In Dink Murder Case Point To Police Intel Chief

Three former police officials who were working in the intelligence unit of the Trabzon Police Department at the time of the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink have pointed to the current head of the National Police Department's intelligence unit as the top official responsible for the failure to prevent the murder from taking place, a Turkish daily reported on Monday.

As the investigation into Dink's murder deepens, eyes are now on the chief of the National Police Department's intelligence unit, Engin Dinç, who headed the intelligence unit in Trabzon at the time of the killing, after several people working under him were arrested on charges of involvement in the murder.

Three police officials who had worked under Dinç in the intelligence unit of the Trabzon Police Department were recently arrested as part of an expanded probe into the killing of Dink. Dinç has been promoted since then and is now the chief of the National Police Department's intelligence unit.

The three police officials -- Ercan Demir, Özkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit -- said in their testimonies that Dinç was the highest authority at the Trabzon Police Department's intelligence unit. According to a report in the Taraf daily on Monday, Demir said during his testimony, “The authority to inform provincial police departments about suspects or conduct operations against suspects belonged to Engin [Dinç].”

Zenit also reportedly said, “Dinç and his accomplices laid a plot against me by making me call Erhan [Tuncel].”

Sound recordings of a phone conversation between Zenit and Tuncel, who worked as an informant for the Trabzon Police Department and was accused of initiating the effort to have Dink murdered, have been leaked to the media. The conversation suggests that Zenit knew about the plot to murder Dink beforehand.

Whether the investigation will be expanded to include Dinç as a suspect remains a question. A news report published in Taraf last week said top state authorities have agreed not to allow him to be prosecuted even though the testimony of his associates points to his involvement.

Taraf also reported on Monday that the government has held Interior Minister Efkan Ala responsible for the recent crisis involving the intelligence unit head. Ala is being criticized for not informing the Prime Ministry and the president's office over Dinç's involvement in the case before it was made public.

An İstanbul court arrested former Cizre Police Chief Ercan Demir, who turned himself in on Monday after a warrant for his arrest was issued on Jan. 16.

Zenit and Mumcu, deputy commissioner of the Trabzon Police Department, were arrested on Jan. 13 on charges of negligence and misconduct in Dink's murder. Demir's case has garnered attention due to the fact that he had been appointed head of the police department in the restive southeastern town of Cizre only a couple of weeks before a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Dink was shot and killed by an ultranationalist teenager. The hitman, Ogün 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 given 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.

Separate investigations related to Dink's murder, including investigations in İstanbul and Trabzon, had previously not been merged in spite of the demands of the Dink family's lawyers. The investigations were finally combined toward the end of last year.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)