Epress.am News from Armenia
Ogün Samast, the murderer who shot Turkish-Armenian journalist, Agos editor-in-chief Hrant Dink to his death almost eight years ago, has recently testified that two former police chiefs are responsible for Dink’s murder, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Samast, who had sent a letter to the prosecutor in charge of the investigation of Dink’s murder stating that he wished to “speak up” on Nov. 17, testified on Dec. 5 as a “witness.”
He accused Ramazan Akyürek, then-police chief of Trabzon, and Ali Fuat Yılmazer, then-Istanbul police intelligence chief, of being behind the murder.
“They made me do the assassination. Yasin Hayal is taking the blame and saying, ‘I did it,’ but he isn’t saying the names behind it. If my words are investigated, the people behind [the murder] will be found. The truth will be found if the relations between the policemen, whose registration numbers I gave, Akyürek, Yılmazer and other individuals whose names are in the court file, are investigated” Samast said in his testimony to Istanbul prosecutor Yusuf Doğan.
Dink was assassinated by Samast in broad daylight on a busy street outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007. The assassination caused outrage across the country, sending hundreds of thousands to the streets in mass rallies.
Samast, who is serving 22 years and 10 months in the high-security F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli, said he met Hayal, who is serving an aggravated life sentence, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. He said he met Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant who was released pending trial, through Hayal.
“Hayal brought me to Tuncel’s house [before the murder] and I overheard them speaking. Erhan and Yasin were talking about the incident. I started listening when Erhan said ‘Ramazan Akyürek and Fuat the manager.’ Yasin said ‘then our backs are safe.’ When we left the house, I told Yasin ‘I know Ramazan Akyürek, he administered here in Trabzon, but who is Fuat?’ Yasin answered by saying ‘they are Erhan’s acquaintances,’” said Samast.
He added that Hayal had said Akyürek and even the Istanbul chief of police at the time knew about the incident and were all behind it.
“Think, the job is big, you will be a hero. I will put you into a lot of trouble if you bail out,” Samast quoted Hayal as saying.