Journalist Faces 28 Years for Dink Book

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By Emine Ozcan

ISTANBUL (BIA News Center) — Nedim Sener, a reporter for the daily Milliyet newspaper who published a book about journalist Hrant Dink’s murder, faces up to 28 years in jail after police officers filed complaints against him.

The book, titled The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies, deals with the police and national intelligence officers who have been accused of negligence in Dink’s 2007 murder. They are accused both of having prior knowledge of murder plans and of preventing the solving of the case with misleading evidence and fake documents.

“I published the incidents of negligence of these three important intelligence institutions of the state in the Dink murder case, giving names,” Sener said. “I have proven that fake documents were prepared. Documents marked as classified and containing lies were published in the book.”

Following the publication of the book, several police officers who filed criminal complaints against the writer: Ramazan Akyürek, then chief of police in Trabzon and still in office as police intelligence unit chief, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, then police intelligence unit manager and now Istanbul intelligence unit chief and Muhittin Zenit, the police officer who was responsible for police informant Erhan Tuncel, who is now accused of encouraging Ogün Samast to kill Hrant Dink.

Sener faces 28 years imprisonment. He stands accused of “targeting people
involved in anti-terrorism campaigns, revealing classified information, obtaining classified information, violating the secrecy of these communications, and attempting to influence the judiciary,” according to court documents.

“What they are trying to punish is the basic procedure of journalism, finding and publishing documents, finding out who are the public officials who have responsibility in Hrant Dink’s murder,” Sener said.

“It is very strange that the Trabzon gendarmerie command’s staff accused of negligence is facing up to two years imprisonment in a trial at the Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace, while no one from the Trabzon police force, which has also been described as negligent, is being tried,” he added.

The Istanbul 11th Heavy Penal Court is dealing with one of the cases against the journalists, in which he faces up to twenty years imprisonment. The court hearing is on 26 June. The Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance is dealing with a second case, where a sentence of up to 8 years is being demanded. The hearing was scheduled for June 10.

The 28 years that Sener faces are eight years more than the possible term for Samast, who is being tried for Dink’s murder.

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