Dink Family will No Longer Attend Murder Trials

One of the lawyers of Hrant Dink’s family has said the family will no longer attend the hearings in the trial of Ogün Samast, the hitman in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Dink, who was fatally shot outside the office of the Agos weekly in 2007, because the case is not meeting the demands of justice, Today’s Zaman reports.

As Samast appeared in juvenile court yesterday for the first time since he was sent to trial in that court, as he was a minor at the time of the crime, the Dink family was not present in the courtroom. Their lawyer, Fethiye Çetin, told reporters that the family and other participants will no longer be present at the hearings.

“As the case has been far from meeting the demands of justice, it has also been [causing] increasing pain and sorrow in society. Therefore, our client, the Dink family, and other participants will no longer come and watch the hearings,” Çetin said.

Samast’s lawyer had referred to the Law of Amendment to the Counterterrorism Law (TMK) and asked for his client to be transferred to juvenile court. Although Dink family lawyers had expressed that Samast should be tried with other suspects in the same court, the judge decided that, according to the new TMK, the current court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction.

The Dink family lawyers also said Samast’s trial in a different court is a small detail because he is the one who pulled the trigger, but what is important is to punish those who encouraged him to commit the murder and the public officials who protected those people. There is a lengthy list of suspicious irregularities in the investigation into Dink’s murder, including deleted records and hidden files suggestive of an attempted police cover-up. The Dink family’s lawyers have said much of the evidence indicates that the murder could have been prevented.

Samast said yesterday at his first appearance in juvenile court that he will just repeat the testimony that he gave four years ago at the 14th High Criminal Court. “My cross examination was also done. I don’t have anything to add,” he said.

The head of the court referred to Samast as “SSÇ,” which means “child who was driven to commit a crime.” The court was in recess when this paper went to print and judges had decided that they would use voice and video recordings at the hearings as much as is possible.