Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 21 2007
Murderer of Hrant Dink Captured
Sunday , 21 January 2007
On Saturday evening, January 20, the lead suspect for Hrant Dink’s
assassination, Ogün Samast, was captured by gendarmarie with the
murder weapon on him, while traveling from Istanbul to Hopa. Ahmet
Samast, who works as a cleaner at the Pelitli municipality, went to
the police after seeing his son’s image on TV , and reported him. The
police took Ogün under custody, as well as his close friend Yasin
Hayal and six others. In 2004 Hayal was tried for setting a bomb at a
McDonald’s in Trabzon. As a part of a detailed investigation, police
are checking 32 computers at the internet cafe the suspect used to
visit.
In the first interrogation session, Samast confessed to the
assassination. In hopes of furthering the investigation, police
brought him back to Istanbul. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoðan
congratulated security forces at a press conference at midnight.
Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler told the Istanbul press that the
assassin was caught within 32 hours thanks to solid evidence,
including CCTV footage from security cameras at the scene. Criminal
investigation results show that the weapon suspect used was a
hand-made 7.65-caliber gun.
Five flights to Istanbul in last two weeks
Ogün Samast who confessed to the murder of Hrant Dink during the
first interrogation session in Samsun, turned out to have visited
Istanbul five times during the past two weeks, according to flight
records. The suspect, who traveled via a private flight company, left
Trabzon’s Pelitli town three days before the assassination took
place. The 17-year-old suspect left school in 2nd grade and turned
out to be unemployed.
Played soccer at Pelitlispor
The prime suspect in assassination, Ogün Samast, played for the
amateur soccer club Pelitlispor. Samast, who was caught with the
assassination handmade-weapon in Samsun, was the same age as O.A. who
assassinated the priest Santaro at Trabzon in February 2006. Samast’s
father and mother live separately.