“A new book on the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, killed four years ago in Istanbul, has claimed the triggerman was glad to be apprehended because he knew he would also be executed,” Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review reports.
“The author, Nedim Sener, is a journalist who has been following the case closely since the murder of Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, in January 2007. His book, “Kirmizi Cuma – Dink’in Kalemini Kim Kırdı?” (Red Friday – Who Broke Dink’s Pen?), will be on shelves in Turkey by the weekend,” the source says.
“According to the book, self-confessed triggerman Ogun Samast, who is from the Black Sea city of Trabzon, spoke to Prime Ministry inspectors April 15, 2008, at the Kocaeli F-Type Prison where he was being held and said he thought about surrendering in Istanbul after he shot Dink,” the daily reads.
“However, I thought, ‘What would they do to me here?’” he said. “I thought, ‘I will surrender in Trabzon; at least I will see my mother [and] father once more.’ Then they caught me in Samsun. It is good that they did. Otherwise, they would have killed me in Giresun.”
“Sener wrote that Samast did not want these comments to be included in the inspectors’ report and said he would not sign it if they were, but the inspectors convinced him to allow the “Then they caught me in Samsun. It is good that they did” part to be included.
“The journalist said he received intelligence that the Samast’s fear was not misplaced. When he looked further into this, he said, he discovered a memo and a tape from Reşat Altay, then the chief of police for Trabzon. Şener claims Altay sent the memo and tape to then-Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The contents of the tape reportedly record a meeting by the nationalist gang that Samast belonged to. The gang met five hours before Samast was caught in Samsun and went there to meet him two hours later,” the daily says.
On the tape, G.K., a gang member whose name was not revealed, is heard speaking to “O.D., a Trabzon police officer whose name was also not given. During these talks, Yasin Hayal’s name is also mentioned. Hayal is one of the suspects in the Dink murder whose alleged involvement was unknown to anyone but the Istanbul and Trabzon police on the day the tape was said to have been made.”
“Triggerman Samast’s trial was separated from the main murder case and transferred to a juvenile court in October due to a legal change he benefited from because he was under the age of 18 on the day of the murder,” the source says.
“Author Sener previously faced trial for “making targets of civil servants,” “obtaining secret documents” and “exposing secret documents” in his book, The Hrant Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies. He was acquitted of all the charges in June,” the daily reports.
