ISTANBUL
A senior police officer, suspected of negligence with regards to the murder of a Turkish-Armenian journalist in 2007, was released on conditional probation by an Istanbul court on Wednesday.
Ercan Demir, who is police chief in the town of Cizre in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sirnak, was on duty as chief at the police department in the Black Sea province of Trabzon when Hrant Dink was killed in Istanbul.
Dink’s murderer Ogun Samast had come from Trabzon.
Demir was questioned by an Istanbul prosecutor on Monday. He rejected accusations of "causing death due to negligence." He is forbidden to leave Turkey.
Two other police officers, also from Trabzon, were arrested Tuesday in the negligence probe related to Dink’s murder.
Ozkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit are accused of "causing death due to negligence" and "professional misconduct."
Nine officials in total have been questioned in the investigation.
High-profile figures questioned last month include former Istanbul vice governor Ergun Gungor, former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul police intelligence unit chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler.
Dink's murderer, Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, has been tried and convicted in 2011.
Dink was the editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos, and was considered to be one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.
Samast, who is serving a sentence of 23 years in prison, said that he had killed Dink for insulting “Turkishness.”
