Turkey Charges Two Police Over Journalist's 2007 Murder

Turkey has arrested two police officers it says failed to prevent the murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist. in 2007

Ozkan Mumcu (read Mumju) and Muhittin Zenit were arrested on January 13 and charged with negligence, causing death by negligence, and abuse of power.

They are accused of failing to act on intelligence and prevent the murder of Hrant Dink, and of failing to carry out an effective probe.

Dink campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, making waves in a country whose relations with Armenia are still severely strained over the mass slaughter and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago.

He was shot dead near the office of the bilingual weekly Agos by a teenage ultranationalist who was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison for the crime in 2011.

The murder grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that security forces knew of a plot to kill Dink, but failed to act.

It is the first time state authoriies have been charged over Dink's killing.

Based on reporting by Dogan, Anadolu and AFP