Opposition demands answers in Dink case

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Ramazan Akyürek (R) is reportedly involved. Hürriyet photo

A Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker demanded explanations on why senior officials involved in the Hrant Dink case had been exempt from any probe, in a parliamentary question he submitted yesterday to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turgut Dibek’s query mentioned senior police official Ramazan Akyürek as well as Istanbul’s former Gov. Muammer Güler, now a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker, and security chief Celalettin Cerrah, now the governor of Osmaniye.

Dibek asked why the authorities had failed to investigate Akyürek, police chief in Trabzon at the time when the youths plotted the murder, “for having sent the tip-off over the assassination as a low-priority document” to the Istanbul police.

He questioned why Cerrah and Güler were not investigated for “their failure to act [to protect Dink] despite having received prior intelligence of the assassination plot.”

Dibek demanded explanation also over police officer Muhittin Zenit, on duty in Trabzon at the time, who was the contact person for Erhan Tuncel, the police informant who was acquitted over Dink’s murder. Zenit is known also as the officer who spoke irreverently about Dink and appeared to condone his killing in a call with Tuncel that had been leaked to the media.Erdoğan was also asked to explain why the authorities failed to punish police and gendarmerie officers who posed for pictures with the self-confessed gunman Ogün Samast after he was captured in Samsun.

Dibek requested answers also on deleted footage from security cameras in the street where Dink was gunned down and the five-year delay in the telecommunication agency’s decision to provide the court with the records of mobile phone signals in the area on the day of the murder.