Court warns police over failure to produce phone records for Hrant Dink murder trial

The 10th hearing in the trial of Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink’s accused killers, held before an Istanbul court on 6 July, was given over to evidence aimed at establishing whether the youth who allegedly fired the fatal shot on 19 January 2006, Ogün Samast, was acting alone. Defendants threatened and insulted the Dink family and its lawyers in court during the hearing. Presiding judge Erkan Canak warned the national police and the police of Trabzon (Samast’s home town) that they would be prosecuted if they continued to fail to produce the requested information about the SMS messages and phone calls made between the various defendants. “The trial is continuing but several public services are still obstructing the emergence of the truth,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This shows how state institutions, especially the police, are protecting and supporting the defendants and the others who were responsible for Dink’s murder, both those who have been identified and those whose identity is still unknown.” The press freedom organisation added: “This complicity with the murderers, driven by nationalistic hatred, is the main obstacle to justice in this case. We therefore insist that Turkey’s leaders have a duty to ensure that government officials provide the answers being demanded by the court.” The Dink family’s lawyers told the presiding judge he was failing to exercise proper authority over the court after Samast threatening them and the Dink family with reprisals during the 6 July hearing. The prosecutor’s office is expected to bring charges against Samast soon in connection with his threats. Several witnesses gave evidence on 6 July about the circumstances of the murder, which took place in an Istanbul street outside Dink’s newspaper, Agos, and about the links between the defendants and the police. One witness, shop assistant Mesme Havva, said she saw a man show Samast the way to Safak Street (near the Agos office) before fleeing with him – testimony indicating that Samast did not act alone. The next hearing, scheduled for 12 October, will be given over to hearing the testimony of a witness whose identity has been kept secret, and to examining the murder weapon.