Turkey: 2 more suspects remanded in Hrant Dink case

By Murat Kaya Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AA) - Two more suspects were remanded in custody on Thursday to stand trial in connection with the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a judicial source said.

As part of an ongoing investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Lt. Col. Metin Yildiz and journalist Ercan Gun were detained in late July.

Istanbul's Second Court of Peace ruled the accused be remained on charges of being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) run by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen.

The number of remanded suspects in the case has now reached 16.

Dink was murdered in broad daylight outside his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. A founder of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, he was considered one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.

Ogun Samast, aged 17 at the time of the killing, claimed he murdered Dink for "insulting Turkishness" and was jailed in 2011 for 23 years.

Since then, several prosecutors have become involved in the investigating whether Samast acted alone.

In July 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled the murder case had been an "ineffective investigation" and last December another indictment was filed calling for the prosecution of 26 former police officers on charges of establishing an armed organization and dereliction of duty.

Recently, the murder case has been expanded to the gendarmerie and fresh claims of links between the case and FETO have added a new dimension to the investigation.