Two more arrested in Hrant Dink case

ISTANBUL

Two more suspects were arrested on Aug. 25 to stand trial in connection with the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a judicial source has said.      

As part of an ongoing investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Lt. Col. Metin Yıldız and journalist Ercan Gün were detained in late July.

The number of arrested suspects in the case has now reached 16.      

Dink was murdered in broad daylight outside his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. A founder of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, he was considered one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.      
Ogun Samast, aged 17 at the time of the killing, claimed he murdered Dink for “insulting Turkishness” and was jailed in 2011 for 23 years.      

In July 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled the murder case had been an “ineffective investigation” and last December another indictment was filed calling for the prosecution of 26 former police officers on charges of establishing an armed organization and dereliction of duty.

Recently, the murder case was expanded to the gendarmerie and fresh claims of links between the case and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) of U.S.-based Fethullah Gülen have added a new dimension to the investigation.