Key suspect followed till moment of Dink’s death

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Yasin Hayal, accused of inciting a nationalist teenager to murder Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, was followed by police until the day Dink was shot outside his newspaper’s Istanbul offices, a police officer saidMonday.

Dink was murdered Jan. 19, 2007, by a teenager in front of the multilingual, daily Agos in Istanbul, creating a national uproar. Dink, who was found guilty of insulting "Turkishness" in an article he had written, had become a target for nationalist anger.

The accused teenager was captured soon after the murder was committed as he was trying to return to his hometown of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.

The police later arrested Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal for inciting the teenager to murder the journalist. A total of 20 suspects are on trial for Dink’s murder.

It was later revealed that Tuncel, who was a police informant, had alerted Trabzon police officials about plans to murder Dink. Both Trabzon and Istanbul police departments came under fire for ignoring threats to Dink’s life.

Yasin Hayal
Hayal was earlier convicted of bombing a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon on Oct. 24, 2004, which injured six people, and was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. He was released pending an appeal after serving 11 months in jail.

Yasin Hayal is suspected of having provided the murder weapon to the teenage murder suspect.

When Hayal was detained after Dink’s murder, he said he was in Trabzon when it happened but mobile phone records showed he was in Istanbul at the time. His brother, Osman Hayal, was also found to be in Istanbul at the time and was arrested.

Earlier, a secret witness had identified four people, Osman and Yasin Hayal, the teenage murder suspect and a fourth person, at the scene of the crime.

Osman Hayal, testifying in court Monday, said his presence in Istanbul the day Dink was murdered was just a coincidence and denied any link to the crime. He also said that the fact he left Istanbul only an hour after the murder had been committed, was also a coincidence. He said his brother had become involved in the murder plan only after he met Tuncel.

Erhan Tuncel
Tuncel, also testifying in court Monday, said Hayal began talking about murdering Dink after he was released from prison. "He invited me to an Internet cafe and said he would kill a person called Dink. I told those near him not to get involved and then went to the police and informed them. [Hayal] was trying to find some money," Tuncel said.

Muhittin Zenit, a police officer who was working in Trabzon at the time, sent his written statement to the court Monday. In it he admitted the department used Tuncel as an intelligence operative and they forwarded what Tuncel said about plans to murder Dink to the Istanbul Police Department.

Another Trabzon police officer, Mehmet Ayhan, said he witnessed the flow of information between Zenit and Tuncel.

"He told us Hayal was planning Dink’s murder. We told this to our superiors," Ayhan said. "We constantly asked him about developments. In November [2006], he said Hayal had decided not to do it. I also told my superiors that Tuncel tended to lie and gave contradictory information. We cooled our ties with Tuncel but did not tell him."

When asked if the police had stopped following Hayal after Tuncel told them he had given up his plans, Ayhan said: "Never. We continued our work. We used to check up on Hayal from time to time. We followed him until the day of the murder."

The police officer said he believed they had done everything they could in the matter. "We could not find anything about the possibility that the crime would be committed. That is all we could have done," he said. He said he did not know Hayal had traveled to Istanbul. He said: "We never gave up on the matter. Would we have wanted such a thing to take place?"

Another Trabzon police officer Onur Karakaya told the court Monday that he had called Tuncel soon after he learned about Dink’s murder. "I told him about the murder and asked him if he knew anything about it. Tuncel was surprised and said: ’No. Yasin could not have done it.’"

Tuncel in his testimony said Hayal had approached him after a court had sentenced him for the McDonalds bombing and about six months before the murder, and told him: "I can spend 40 years rather than six years in prison. [Killing Dink] would be worth it."

He communicated this to Zenit and told a police chief, Ercan Demir, that, "Hayal needs to be kept under control."

Laying blame on others
"Zenit told me he would bury me if anything happened to Hrant Dink. He said I was blaming Hayal for something I was planning," Tuncel said, adding that he had met Hayal three more times, asking him not to commit the murder.

On the day of the murder, Zenit called him and asked if Hayal’s group had done it. "I said I do not know. I went to a cafe and saw Zeynel Abidin Yavuz. I asked for Yasin and [the teenage murder suspect]. When I asked if they had committed the murder, he said, ’Yes.’ I did not believe him."

He said Hayal was just a friend. "If I wanted Hrant Dink dead, I would have never informed the police. If I knew what I know now, I would not have said a word and nothing like this would have happened to me."

In addition to the trial in Istanbul, there is an investigation underway in the Pelitli region of Trabzon, where most of the suspects originate. Pelitli is under Gendarmerie jurisdiction. Two noncommissioned officers, who were accused of dereliction of duty for ignoring a tip-off on a plot against Dink’s life, earlier admitted they had notified their superior, Gendarmerie Commander Ali Öz about the information they received. Five gendarmerie officers, including Öz, face charges of ignoring the threat to Dink’s life.

Ergenekon
The Istanbul court Monday decided to compare phone records with the records of the Ergenekon investigation.

The court also banned Yasin Hayal’s lawyer, Fuat Turgut, from the trial proceedings because he is currently being tried as a suspect in the Ergenekon trial.

The Ergenekon investigation involves an alleged criminal gang suspected of plotting to topple the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government.

Top retired military officials, union leaders, journalists and politicians have been arrested in the investigation into the alleged gang, which is accused of trying to create chaos through crimes that would facilitate a military takeover.

The court also filed a complaint against Hayal’s lawyer, Turgut, for insulting the Dink family and Armenians.

The judge, Erkan Canak, said five inmates at the Istanbul Silivri Prison had sent a letter to the court to testify, claiming they had important information linked to the trial.

The court decided to release three suspects, including Zeynel Abidin Yavuz, pending their trial. Only five suspects remain in jail because they pose a flight risk. The next court session will be held April 20 and neither Yasin Hayal nor Tuncel will be present because of the fight they had in court Monday.