“On the day of the murder, Ogün Samast came to the Internet café we run. He chatted online with someone for two-and-a-half hours. I saw that he was very excited when chatting. I was the first person who gave a description of him to the police,” Cavit Kılıç said during yesterday’s hearing at the İstanbul 14th Criminal Court.
Judge Resul Çakır read documents sent to the court during the hearing. Çakır said the Gendarmerie General Command had sent a statement refuting claims by a secret witness who said during the previous hearing that he worked for JİTEM, a secret and illegal military intelligence agency, and was paid by the İstanbul Gendarmerie Central Command. The command said the secret witness, Erhan Özen, never did work within the body of JİTEM.
On May 11, Özen said a group of people were tasked with taking pictures of the surroundings of Agos and that he was part of that team.
In 2007, Dink was fatally shot by a teenager outside the headquarters of the Agos weekly, where he was editor-in-chief. Dink’s friends, his family and rights groups have complained that although the suspected perpetrator and his immediate accomplices have been arrested and put on trial, those who masterminded the plot to kill him have yet to be identified.
Although police arrested the suspected gunman, Samast, and an associate, Yasin Hayal, a few days after Dink’s murder, those higher-ups who may have planned the murder are still a matter of concern for many.
