Turkey: Ex-lieutenant remanded over Hrant Dink murder

By Muhammed Enes Can and Murat Kaya Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AA) - One suspect was remanded in custody on Friday over the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Ali Baris Sevindik, who was serving as lieutenant at the time of the murder in Istanbul gendarmerie command's intelligence department, was detained and sent to Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul.

As part of the ongoing investigation of Istanbul chief public prosecutor's office into the Dink murder case, the court ruled Sevindik would be taken to prison.

Two other suspects, who were also sent to the court, were released but banned from leaving Turkey.

Dink was murdered in broad daylight in front of his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007. He was one of the founders of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly, Agos, and was considered one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.

Since then, several prosecutors have been involved in the investigation.

On April 20, 2007, Istanbul Public Prosecutors Selim Berna Altay and Fikret Secen prepared an indictment of over 18 suspects, including Dink's assassin Ogun Samast.

Samast, who was aged 17 at the time of the killing, claimed he killed Dink for "insulting Turkishness", and was jailed in 2011 for 23 years in connection with the murder.

Istanbul High Criminal Court had accepted the indictment. However, the indictment was criticized since it only focused on Samast and could not reach the main perpetrators responsible for Dink's murder.

In July 2014, Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled the murder case had been an "ineffective investigation".

In December 2015, another indictment linked to the 2007 murder called for the prosecution of 26 people on charges of "establishing an armed organization" and "neglecting their duties".

The indictment called for life sentences to be handed down to Ramazan Akyurek, a former head of Turkey's police intelligence, as well as Cosgun Cakar and Ali Fuat Yilmazer, both senior police intelligence officers. The three have been accused of intentionally causing Dink’s death and forming an "armed organization".

The case was later expanded to the gendarmerie in light of new evidence.

On July 3, 2016, two gendarme officers, Abdullah Dinc and Yusuf Bozca, were arrested and remanded.

During his appearance at the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul, Bozca said: “The Dink assassination was organized by members of FETO/parallel state structure and his murder then formed the basis of the [July 15] coup attempt."

Now, such claims of links between the case and the U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen's terror organization FETO, have added a new dimension to the investigation.