Former Istanbul Police Chief Summoned to Testify in Dink Murder Trial

ISTANBUL — Former Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah has been summoned to testify in the trial into the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a Dink family lawyer has stated.

Dink was assassinated in broad daylight outside the office of his Agos newspaper on Jan. 17, 2007.

Hakan Bakircioglu, one of the family’s lawyers, told the Cihan news agency that Cerrah and several other public officials have been summoned to testify in the trial.

“Nine public officials, including former Istanbul Deputy Governor Ergun Güngör and Cerrah, are facing an investigation on charges of negligence in Dink’s murder.

The lawyers of Dink’s family filed a complaint in 2011 with the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against Güngör; Cerrah; the former chief of the Istanbul Police Department’s intelligence unit, Ahmet Ilhan Güngör; and six other police officers on the grounds that those public officials were negligent because they failed to prevent Dink’s murder.

After the complaint, the chief public prosecutor’s office applied to the Istanbul Governor’s Office to ask for permission to investigate those listed public officials. However, the governor’s office did not give this permission to the prosecutor’s office. After the governor’s office’s decision, the prosecutors decided not to prosecute.