‘Dink murder not a simple coincidence,’ former governor says

TRABZON - Doğan News Agency

Yavuzdemir was in office in Trabzon when Hrant Dink was killed in 2007. DHA Photo

The Black Sea town of Trabzon’s former Gov. Hüseyin Yavuzdemir, who was in office during Hrant Dink’s murder, said what happened in Trabzon was not a coincidence.

“If you look closely at the legal proceedings of the Dink case you can see only those people who were in the position of hit men were punished and the search for who was behind those incidents was never made,” Yavuzdemir said.

“The main reason for this is public prosecutors have delegated those investigations and collecting of evidence they were supposed to do themselves to police and gendarmerie during the stage of collecting criminal evidence,” he said.

“When viewed from this perspective, the investigation file prepared by the police or the gendarmerie almost becomes the prosecutor’s indictment itself. Public prosecutors should personally lead the process of investigation. Unless this is done, it is impossible for courts to be able to solve dark murders and incidents.”

The suspected gunman and several other young men implicated in the case are from Trabzon. Two gendarmerie officers on trial in Trabzon have stated they had informed their superiors of the planned Dink murder.