Yesterday, Engin Dinç, who is the current chief of the General Directorate of Security Intelligence Department and was the chief of Trabzon Security Directorate Intelligence Department at time of murder, came to the court for the first time. The hearing continues today.
Yesterday, Engin Dinç,
after he presented his defence, answered the questions of the court
and lawyers of Dink family.
In a report, “Hrant Dink will be murdered” note was changed to “an impactful event” before it was sent to Istanbul and Engin Dinç claimed that there wasn't such a change and it was never written “murdered”.
“We didn't talk about the plans for murder with Tuncel”
Dinç also talked about his meeting with Erhan Tuncel in his office: “I have seen him just for once. We called him for talking about why he hadn't been contacting us. We talked about the money and lessons. We decided that two people, one of them being a high-rank officer, will go to the meetings and after that I haven't seen him again.” Dinç also claimed that they haven't talked about Dink murder during that meeting.
Dink family's lawyer Hakan Bakırcıoğlu asked whether they had informed Reşat Altay, chief of Trabzon Security Directorate, about the murder. Dinç said: “We sent a notice to Istanbul and a report to the ministry. If we wanted to hide the plans for murder, we wouldn't have done such things.” The head judge asked Dinç, “What do you think about the fact that the provincial police chief said that he hadn't been informed about such an important issue?” And Dinç answered: “We worked with Altay at most 2 months. The informant was dismissed during that period, he signed this decision. All people who worked there after me had information about this issue. We didn't hide any information.”
“There might be personal mistakes”
Dinç was asked if Trabzon Intelligence Department had sent a notice to Istanbul for providing protection for Hrant Dink. He said: “It will be a personal comment but I think that such things should have been done. Our friends might have some personal mistakes.”
The court asked if Dinç followed the issue, after sending a notice to Istanbul stating that Hrant Dink is a target. Dinç said: “I wrote the notice and called Istanbul. I didn't have the authority to give orders to Istanbul, but I think that I fulfilled my duty. The warning notice should have been deemed important.”
During the questioning, Dinç said that they hadn't have enough information for launching an operation and added: “Dink should have been protected anyway.”
