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The arrest of former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer  for his alleged involvement in the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is an attempt by the government to divert society's attention from the state officials truly at fault, Yılmazer's lawyer, Hüseyin Ataol, has said, Today's Zaman reports.

Ataol told Today's Zaman that by accusing his client, Engin Dinç, the head of intelligence for the National Police Department, hopes to divert attention from his own involvement. Dinç was the head of intelligence in Trabzon at the time of Dink's murder. 

Ataol said that he had already submitted documents proving that Yılmazer was not responsible for Dink's murder. “The former head of intelligence for the National Police Department, Sabri Uzun, and the current head, Dinç, are primarily responsible in the case, and Dink's family has requested that they be tried, a request that was supported by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR] in 2010,”he said.

According to the attorney, the government's attempt to implicate Yılmazer in Dink's murder is an effort to link him to the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, in order to portray it as an armed terrorist organization.

Former Turkish Police Department Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer, who is already in jail as part of an operation against police, was arrested for the second time in a separate investigation into the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Earlier, Yılmazer stated he couldn’t be held liable since was not even serving in Istanbul at the time the incident occurred.  He called “slander” the fact of his being connected to the murder.

Hrant Dink, the founder and chief editor of Agos Armenian weekly of Istanbul, was killed on January 19, 2007 in front of the weekly’s office, by Ogun Samast.  

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