Turkish police chief arrested for negligence regarding Dink murder

An Istanbul court ordered Monday the arrest of a Turkish police chief, who was suspected of negligence in the murder case of a Turkish-Armenian journalist in 2007, hours after he surrendered to Ankara police department.

Ercan Demir was on duty as chief of police in the Black Sea province of Trabzon at the time when Hrant Dink was killed in Istanbul. Dink's murderer Ogun Samast had come from Trabzon.

The surrender came three days after an Istanbul night court, on the appeal of the prosecutor, decided on Friday to issue an arrest warrant for Demir, who is currently a police chief in the town of Cizre in Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak.

The same officials said that the police chief would be taken to Istanbul after all procedures at the department are completed.

High-profile figures questioned last month include former Istanbul vice governor Ergun Gungor, former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul police intelligence unit chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler.

Dink's murderer, Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, was tried and convicted in 2011.

Dink was the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Agos and was considered to be one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.

Samast, who is serving a sentence of 23 years in prison, said that he had killed Dink for insulting "Turkishness."