Witness in Dink's case disappears

A witness involved in the case of the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist and Chief Editor of bilingual weekly Agos, Hrant Dink, has disappeared from prison.

According to Turkish daily Hurriyet, Erhan Ozen, considered a key witness as he possess information that may shed more light on the assassination, did not come back to the penitentiary after he left it with a special permission.

The paper does not, however, mention as to why he left the prison.

Ozen was serving his sentence for robbery in Amasia and had recently been moved to the prison of Corum, in northern Anatolia.

Days before Ozen's disappearance, Istanbul Prosecutor Selim Berna Atalay had sent a written notice to the administration of the Corum prison, summoning Ozen to attend the next court hearing of Dink's case.

But the Corum penitentiary's administration has responded that Ozen did not return after he had left the prison with a special permission.