Epress.am News from Armenia
The latest evidence submitted to the case investigating the murder of Hrant Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian Agos weekly, was found through the efforts of the journalist’s son, Arat Dink, who developed a software program that revealed misleading police information in the case, Today’s Zaman reports..
Recall, Dink was shot and killed by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in broad daylight in İstanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. The investigation into his murder stalled when the suspected perpetrator and his accomplices were put on trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill Dink have yet to be found and punished.
Arat Dink, acting as a detective in his father’s murder case, developed a software program to examine Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) phone records the Dink family attorneys were able to receive only a week ago. He was able to find five phone numbers that belong to people who were present at the crime scene on the day of the murder and who spoke with Mustafa Öztürk and Salih Hacısalihoğlu, two suspects in the investigation.
Fethiye Çetin, the Dink family’s lawyer, also stated that, because of Arat Dink’s software, they have been able to detect 14 other phone numbers belonging to people who were not present at the scene of the crime, but were called by two suspects who were present in the vicinity of the Agos office at the time of the assassination.
Arat Dink’s findings were submitted to the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court by Çetin during the 24th hearing of the trial. Çetin, recalling police officials’ statement that no phone conversation was found among the suspects on the day of the murder, accused them of providing misleading information in the case.
“We found this information with very limited resources. I find it impossible for police officials to not notice this information, given the advanced technology they possess,” Çetin stated, suggesting that police intentionally obscured the evidence.