An interesting development took place in the last hearing of the trial into the murder of Istanbul-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, in Turkey.

Former Police Intelligence Chief Ramazan Akyürek, who is in custody for the past two years, stated that then Istanbul Provincial Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah had asked him to get rid of the intelligence report, according to which a group of persons had left from Trabzon to Istanbul, prior to Dink’s murder, to carry out an operation that will “raise a lot of noise,” reported Haber Turk news agency of Turkey.

Cerrah, however, denied this allegation, and stressed that he had not asked such a thing from Akyürek.

Hrant Dink was the founder and chief editor of Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul. He was gunned down on January 19, 2007 in front of then office of Agos.