January 17, 2008 - 16:32 AMT
Did Samast murder Hrant Dink not alone?
The murderer of Agos weekly editor-in-chief Hrant Dink may not have been alone before and after committing the crime, the Milliyet daily reported.

After Ogun Samast's pictures were published, an unnamed person called the Pelitli Gendarmerie in the Black Sea province of Trabzon and reported that he knew Samast, where he lived and worked and his father's name, said the daily.

But although the phone call was made Jan. 20, a day after the murder, it was filed nine days later by the gendarmerie. The caller said, he ran away from Trabzon to Istanbul with his friends, committed the murder there.

Although Samast said he was alone in planning and committing the crime, that person's call says he headed for Istanbul with his friends. Suspect and informant, Erhan Tuncel, in his testimony had also implied Samast was not alone. Coskun Igci, uncle of the suspect Yasin Hayal charged with inciting the murder, reported to two gendarmerie stations that Hayal would murder Hrant Dink.

The trial of the police officials who did not take any action after the report will start Jan. 22.