The European Court for Human Rights has ruled in favour of the (murdered) Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and his family. Dink filed the case almost four years ago. The Turkish state didn’t do enough to protect Dink’s life and didn’t respect Dink’s freedom of expression. The news appeared in several Turkish media outlets on Monday.
Sources say the verdict is set to be announced in September. Dink started the court case in January 2007, a week before he was killed in Istanbul by a young nationalist. Dink, who was known for his efforts to reconcile Turks and Armenians, was convicted of ‘insulting Turkishness’, and he wanted the European Court to overturn that conviction.
After his death his family went to the same court to sue the Turkish state for negligence: soon it became clear that many high-ranking police officers and security service personnel knew about the murder plans but took no action to prevent the murder. The Court heard both cases together.
The case has got a lot of renewed media attention in Turkey over the previous week. Last week the official defence sent to the Court by the Turkish state was leaked. It asserted that Dink incited hatred with his articles and referred to a case of the German state against a neo-Nazi. The comparison between Hrant Dink and a neo-Nazi angered many Turks.
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