Agos Writers Trial on the 18th

Murdered Hrant Dink's newspaper Agos is on trial this week, with three of its employees in court on 18 July.

License owner Serkis Seropyan and responsible director Arat Dink face court because of Hrant Dink's comments on an Armenian genocide in an interview with Reuters News Agency, while writer Aydin Engin is being tried for an article he wrote.

Continuation of court hearing in June

On 14 June, prosecutor Mücahit Ercan at a penal court in Sisli, Istanbul, had demanded that Seropyan and Dink be punished for "degrading Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The journalists' lawyers had demanded time to prepare a defense, disagreeing with the prosecution's judgment.

On the same day, writer Aydin Engin and license holder Seropyan had been acquitted of "attempting to influence the judiciary process" with an article entitled "The judiciary needs to be upset". However, Engin has been accused of "insulting the court" in his article.

Karin Karakasli, the editor at the time that Hrant Dink wrote a series of articles entitled "Armenian Identity", was acquitted, too.

Dink: I have said it before, why now?

Hrant Dink, Seropyan and Arat Dink were put on trial in September 2006 for an article entitled "One signature against 301", published on 21 July 2006, and Hrant Dink's comment that he believed in an Armenian genocide.

In an interview with Reuters News Agency on 14 July 2006, Hrant Dink had said: "Of course I say it was a genocide, because the result is clear. You can see that a people who lived on this soil for 4,000 years has disappeared after these events. That is self-explanatory."

At the previous hearing, his son Arat Dink had said: "If they insist on asking, I cannot deny my self. I cannot deny my history and identity. Similar comments of mine have been published on front pages of Turkish newspapers before, but no suit was brought. Because then there was no operation to put me in my place..."

Seropyan had said, "I appear as the newspaper's owner. If there was a need to collect signatures against Article 301, I would do it again". (EÖ/EÜ/AG)