ISTANBUL (Today’s Zaman)–Kemal Goktas, a correspondent for the Vatan daily in Ankara, said in an Istanbul court yesterday that the Istanbul Police Department knew that Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was to be killed but did not take any precautions, the Turkish Today’z Zaman reported Thursday.
In a hearing at Istanbul’s 2nd Court of First Instance, Goktas, who is being tried for revealing secret documents and allegedly jeopardizing the state’s police department, said in his defense that the Trabzon Police Department had informed the Istanbul Police Department about the plans for Dink’s murder.
In his book, “Hrant Dink’s Murder — Media, Judiciary and State,” Goktas had revealed how the Istanbul Police Department ignored warnings from the Trabzon Police Department about Dink’s murder.
“Then Intelligence Chief Ramazan Akyurek and the Istanbul Police Department filed a criminal complaint against me for publishing the document. This document showed how Hrant Dink was going to be murdered and [proved that] police knew it beforehand. It shows that a group headed by Yasin Hayal was to kill Dink,” Goktas said in his own defense.
Goktas, who is facing a three-to-five-year prison sentence, also said Akyürek did not take steps to prevent the murder.
Meanwhile, 19 police officers, including Akyurek, that were charged with negligence in the investigation into the Dink assassination have been cleared by a report drafted by Interior Ministry investigators.
