Former Turkish police intelligence chief sent to jail in Dink murder case

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

Former head of Turkey's police intelligence, Ramazan Akyürek, was sent to prison late on Feb. 27 over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, according to police sources.
      


Akyürek had been in detention since Feb. 26 on charges of negligence on the job at the time of Dink's murder.
      
Earlier on Feb. 27, the former police intelligence chief was taken to Istanbul's Çağlayan court for questioning after his lawyer said his client would not answer questions at the Ankara police department.
      
The Istanbul public prosecutor's office questioned Akyürek for four hours at the court and charged him of "causing death by negligent behavior," "forgery of official documents" and "malfeasance." The prosecutor's office urged the court to order his arrest.

Akyürek was removed from his position right after the Dec. 17, 2013, corruption and graft operation, along with hundreds of other senior police officers allegedly linked to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the government’s ally-turned-nemesis. An Ankara court had rejected Akyürek’s dismissal in January 2014.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office initially aborted an ongoing probe into the alleged negligence of nine public servants, but the 8th Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district cancelled the decision, reopening the probe on June 6, 2014.

In his testimony in October 2014, Akyürek had placed the accusation of the murder on former Istanbul police intelligence chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer.

Civil servants and institutions allegedly implicated in the murder of Dink should be investigated, the Constitutional Court ruled on July 17, 2014. The ruling became a milestone in the case that has been lingering since the killing in 2007.  

Ogün Samast assassinated Dink in broad daylight on a busy street outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Istanbul’s Şişli district. Samast is serving a sentence of 22 years and 10 months in a high-security prison. Yusuf Hayal and Tuncel are accused of encouraging Samast to kill Dink in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. 

The triggerman also alleged last month that then-Trabzon police chief Akyürek and Yılmazer were behind the murder.