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Turkey: Journalist charged over court criticism

A newspaper columnist has been charged with “insulting a public official” after he criticised the Turkish justice system’s management of the investigation into journalist Hrant Dink‘s murder. Daily News columnist Cengiz Cangar described the court as reckless and frivolous, and accused it of “forgetting to bring in the most crucial witness”, in a column entitled Hrant and Justice are being ridiculed. In his testimony to Turkey’s prosecutor of press crimes, Cangar argued that he had not directed his criticisms towards any specific individual, and that the presiding judge in the trial agreed that the courtroom had lacked decorum at points.

Turkey: Dink murder journalist cleared

Turkish journalist, Nedim Şener has been acquitted following his prosecution for alleging police negligence in his book “The Dink Murder and the Intelligence Lies” with respect to the murder of Turkish-Armenian reporter Hrant Dink. Accused of a “violation of secrecy” for publishing confidential information, Şener faced a three year prison sentence if convicted. However, on Friday 4 June, the court exonerated him, ruling that much of the “secret” information was already in the public domain prior to the books publication.

Turkey: Hrant Dink murder investigation reopened

The investigation into alleged police involvement in the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is to be reopened. Dink was the editor of Agos, a bilingual newspaper which challenged the official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which holds that hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished because of hunger and suffering in World War One. He was murdered in 2007 by Ogün Samast. During the trial, concerns were raised over photos which showed Samast posing with Istanbul police officers. In October 2008, the officers were acquitted. At the time the court claimed that it could no “solid and convincing evidence” to convict them. The Provincial Administration Board has now decided that the investigation can take into consideration evidence relating to four police officers, former Police Chief İbrahim Pala, Chief Inspectors Volkan Altınbulak and İbrahim Şevki Eldivan and police officers Bahadır Tekin and Özcan Özkan, although four other officers involved in the case will not be investigated.