Turkey charges seventh man over Dink murder

ISTANBUL, Jan 31 (Reuters) Turkey charged a seventh man over the murder of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink today, a court official said.

Salih Hacisalihoglu, 30, was charged with belonging to an armed gang, the official said. He was detained this week in the Black Sea town of Trabzon, home of the other six men charged over the January.

19 killing.

Turkish newspapers say police were warned a year ago about a plot to kill Dink and failed to act. Interior Ministry inspectors are due to start investigating the handling of the case by Istanbul police tomorrow, media said.

Dink was shot dead by a 17-year-old unemployed youth outside his Istanbul office. His funeral drew some 100,000 mourners on to the streets to protest at the militant nationalism which apparently inspired his killer.

Police are still questioning four people in the case.

Inspectors have already examined the Trabzon police handling of the case and were also questioning officials in the Black Sea town of Samsun, where the murder suspect Ogun Samast was caught.

The government has dismissed Trabzon's governor and police chief over the Dink case.

Dink, 52, was a hate figure for ultra-nationalists because of his comments on the mass killing of Armenians on Turkish soil in 1915, still a highly sensitive issue in this European Union candidate country.

Eighteen writers and journalists have been granted police protection since Dink's murder, an official at the Istanbul governor's office told Reuters.

German publishers said on Wednesday Nobel-prize winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk had cancelled a trip to Germany at short notice over concerns for his personal safety.

Pamuk, like Dink, has been prosecuted under laws restricting freedom of expression in Turkey over comments he made on the mass killing of Armenians during World War One.

REUTERS SP PM2151