DINK FAMILY LAWYERS: POLICE ATTEMPTS TO PROTECT THOSE DINK MURDER PLOTTERS

An Istanbul court on Tuesday ruled against a demand to start an investigation into Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah and seven other police officers, including former Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler, who were accused of having disregarded intelligence information regarding a plot to kill Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his office in January of last year, Today’s Zaman reports. Earlier, lawyers representing the Dink family appealed against Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler’s refusal to grant his legally required permission to start an investigation into the role of Chief of Police Cerrah, who the prosecution says disregarded important intelligence information that could possibly have saved Dink’s life. Permission granted by the Istanbul governor to investigate whether the seven other officers are responsible in any way was annulled by the court yesterday after Ahmet Ilhan Guler filed a case contesting the governor’s decision. Sadettin Yaman, one of the judges on the panel, objected to the majority ruling. Since the trial of suspects in the Dink murder started last year, lawyers representing the Dink family have questioned the fairness of the trial many times. One of the suspects in the case is a former police informant. Dink’s lawyers also claimed that information needed for the prosecution and demanded by the court was denied by the police, which they say has been withholding critical information on some of the suspects and their relationship to some police officers. There have also been a series of police lapses in the handling of the Dink case, which many say are attempts to protect those who plotted the crime. The governor of a northwestern province of Turkey permitted Sunday an investigation to be opened into a colonel and a captain for failing to act on information received prior to the assassination of Hrant Dink and hiding the intelligence. Nuri Okutan, the governor of Trabzon, said the governor’s office decided to give the permission for the investigation after assessing a report of the inspectors from the Turkish Interior Ministry. Dink was gunned down in broad daylight on Jan. 19 in front of the headquarters of bilingual Armenian weekly Agos, of which he was the editor-in-chief. Following Dink’s murder, many reports suggested that the police were tipped off about the planned assassination more than once prior to his execution, yet failed to prevent it.

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