Records in Hrant Dink trial handed in to court

Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate (TÝB) has finally delivered the phone records requested by the court overseeing the case of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist assassinated in 2007, after months of dawdling.

TÝB had earlier rejected two other court demands to disclose the relevant phone records, first by indicating to the court that no phone calls were made in the area in question, then by claiming that the disclosure of such information would amount to a “violation of privacy.”

In October, however, TÝB responded to the same demands by a higher court with a counter request. The TÝB demanded that a series of simulated phone calls be made and that other relevant information about the calls, such as their duration and date, also be recorded.

The request could be in vain, however, as the locations of the base stations in the area might have changed, or the base stations may have been removed altogether in the four years that have passed since the assassination.

TÝB offered no explanation as to how placing such simulated phone calls might shed light on the events surrounding Dink’s murder.

Dink, a journalist of Armenian origin, was the chief editor for weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He was shot in front of his office in January 2007. Triggerman Ogün Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison in July for the murder.