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UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000370 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AM TU
SUBJECT: FIRST OPEN SESSION OF DINK MURDER TRIAL 
 
REF: A. A. 07 ISTANBUL 0577 
     ¶B. B. 07 ISTANBUL 0897 
 
 ¶1. The sixth session of the trial of the accused murderers 
of Agos newspaper editor Hrant Dink convened on July 7 and 
was for the first time open to the public, since the primary 
murder suspect, Ogun Samast, is no longer a minor. In 
addition to U.S. Consualte General istnabul observers, 
members of the Hrant Dink family and members of the Turkish 
and European Parliaments attended the proceedings. Eleven 
suspects were present at the trial, while eight remained in 
jail. Three suspects (Ogun Samast, Erhan Tuncel, and Yasin 
Hayal) responded to questioning and two witnesses (Hayal's 
uncle Coskun Igci and Hakki Bahadir Cihan) testified. The 
major revelation was Igci's testimony that he informed 
gendarmerie officers in Trabzon at least four times prior to 
October 2006 of Hayal's intention to assassinate Dink and 
tried to dissuade Hayal of his plans. 
 
¶2. From time to time the trial descended into buffoonery, 
mostly at the instigation of Hayal's lawyer, Fuat Turgut. 
Turgut, known in legal circles for his flamboyant style of 
advocacy, was dressed in a fluorescent green shirt and bright 
red tie and hinted at Armenian and Jewish involvement in 
Dink's murder. For example, even after the accused Tuncel 
gruffly corrected Turgut's persistent assertions that his 
girlfriend was Israeli, Turgut continued to ask questions 
in which he embedded the supposition. During his questioning 
of Samast, Turgut asked if the Turkish-Armenian writer 
Etyen Mahcupyan had called Samast while he was in front of 
the Agos office prior to murdering Dink. The question 
prompted Samast to respond sarcastically that in fact it was 
the singer Jennifer Lopez who had called him. 
 
¶3. Comment: The next hearing in the trial is scheduled for 
October 13, 2008.  Although such scheduling may appear 
tortuously languid to observers accustomed to the common law 
trial system utilized in the U.S., this pace is standard 
in the Turkish justice system. For instance, it took four 
years of trial for the same tribunal to find Al Qaeda members 
guilty of the 2003 bombings of the British Consulate and two 
Istanbul synagogues. End Comment. 
 
WIENER