ISTANBUL (Public Radio of Armenia) — A police chief accused of negligence in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 was arrested after turning himself into the authorities in Ankara on January 19, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Police Chief Ercan Demir was arrested on charges of “voluntary manslaughter with reckless behavior.”
Demir was named as police chief of the southeastern province of Sirnak on December 30, despite accusations of negligence ahead of Dink’s murder when he was the intelligence police chief in Trabzon province, where the convicted killer and his accomplices came from. Dink’s family lawyer has accused him of failing to monitor the killers despite receiving notices about the planned assassination.
After being assigned to Sirnak, Demir was then recalled to his previous post at the General Security Directorate’s Information Technologies unit in Ankara, and he submitted himself to the police on Jan. 16, the day when a court issued an arrest warrant for his role in the Dink case. Demir is expected to testify in Istanbul.
On January 13, an Istanbul court arrested Muhittin Zenit and Özkan Mumcu, two policemen involved in the inquiry into the killing of Dink.
