Two suspects arrested in Hrant Dink case

ISTANBUL

A Turkish court on April 12 ordered the arrest of two noncommissioned officers over their suspected links to the killing of a prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.    
 
Gendarmerie sergeants Hacı Şefik Şimşek and Bekir Yokuş are accused of homicide, being a member of an armed terrorist organization and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.      

Dink was shot dead at the age of 52 in broad daylight outside the offices of the Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper Agos, which he founded, in central Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

Ogün Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.

But the case grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that the security forces had been aware of a plot to kill Dink but failed to act.

Eight suspects, including police and journalists, were arrested on March 28 on charges related to the murder of Dink, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.  

Although Samast has been convicted of pulling the trigger, the case has been re-investigated several times amid allegations that police conspired to permit Dink’s killing to occur.  
   
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants on March 21 for the detention of eight people in the ongoing investigation for publishing provocative photos with the convicted murderer after the 2007 killing.

Police detained journalist Muammer Ay and Murat Bayrak, Yüksel Avan, Birol Ustaoğlu, Yakup Kurtaran and Ahmet Çetiner in simultaneous operations conducted in six provinces.