Scandal in Turkey as photographs of police posing with alleged killer of journalist leaked

The photographs show the suspect in the killing, 17-year-old nationalist Ogun Samast, holding out a Turkish flag and posing with officers, some of them in uniform. Behind Samast a poster with another Turkish flag carries the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey: "The nation's land is sacred. It cannot be left to fate."

A voice in the video can be heard asking if the quote on the poster can be arranged above the suspect's head. Someone also tells Samast to fix his hair.

The Turkish media took on an outraged tone. "Shoulder to shoulder with the triggerman: suspected killer Samast was given the hero treatment," the Sabah daily reported on its front page.

Initial reports said the photographs were taken at a military police office at the bus station where Samast was captured, but military police denied it, saying they were taken at a police station nearby.

"The military police personnel seen in the images were personnel assigned to hand over the suspect to the police," a statement from military police headquarters said.

The statement also urged the media to be cautious in publicizing "attempts aimed at fraying the Turkish Armed Forces" and expressed concern about the motives of those who leaked the images.

Police spokesman Ismail Caliskan said the officers involved in the images were being investigated, as were those who leaked them to the media. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/