Two police officers arrested over Hrant Dink murder
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULJan 13, 2015 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
Jan 13, 2015 12:00 am
An Istanbul court has accepted the prosecutor's request to arrest two police officers, Özkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit, on Tuesday. The police officers were part of the Trabzon branch of the Turkish National Police at the time of the 2007 murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
The two police officers have been arrested for "negligence" in the inquiry of the murder.
Mumcu and Zenit have been charged with "failing to carry out an effective probe", "causing death by negligence" and "abuse of power."
It is the first time that arrest warrants have been issued for police officials in the investigation of the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist.
Dink was shot dead in broad daylight by a teenage ultranationalist outside the offices of his bilingual Agos newspaper, sending shockwaves through Turkey.
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.
Turkey's top court in July ruled that the investigation into the killing had been flawed, paving the way for the trial of state officials who could be implicated in the murder.
Seven other officials, including then Istanbul police chief, are currently on trial on charges of negligence.
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