ISTANBUL
Two police officers were arrested Tuesday in an ongoing negligence probe related to the murder of a Turkish-Armenian journalist in 2007.
An Istanbul penal court had issued Monday an arrest warrant for Ozkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit, two police officers on duty at the police department in the Black Sea province of Trabzon when Hrant Dink was killed in Istanbul.
Both Mumcu and Zenit, who are accused of "causing death due to negligence" and "professional misconduct," have been arrested.
They are the first public officials arrested with regards to Dink's murder.
Nine officials have been questioned about alleged police inaction prior to the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who was killed in 2007. Dink's murderer, Ogun Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, has been tried and convicted in 2011.
Other high-profile figures questioned last month include former Istanbul vice governor Ergun Gungor, former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah and former Istanbul police intelligence unit chief Ahmet Ilhan Guler.
Dink was the editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos, and was considered to be one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey.
Samast, who is serving a sentence of 23 years in prison, said that he had killed Dink for insulting “Turkishness.”
