Hrant Dink Murder suspect faces 19 years in prison if convicted

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

Sunday , 21 January 2007

The 17-year-old Ogun Samast who is the prime suspect in
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murder, will be tried
according to the Children’s Preservation Law adopted in June 2005
since he is below the age of 18.

If a lawsuit is filed against Samast for "committing planned murder",
he may be sentenced to imprisonment from 18 to 24 years according to
article 31 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). If he is tried according
to the Execution Law, he will be given two-thirds of the punishment,
which makes for 19 years. If it is revealed that the murder has
links with criminal organizations, it is possible for him to be
sentenced to another four to five years of imprisonment. An expert
on criminal justice, Professor Bahri Ozturk, recalling that Samast
will be tried according to Children’s Preservation Law, explained
that a reduction is unlikely in Samast’s punishment in light of the
new penal code enacted in 2005. He added that the public’s conscience
will be relieved with this.

The suspect, who is currently held in the Terror branch of the Istanbul
Security Directorate, will be interrogated by the public prosecutor
instead of the police since he is under 18. If it is clear that the
suspect committed this crime without any outside support, he will be
held in custody for 24 hours. But this duration might be increased to
48 hours upon the public prosecutor’s demand, according to criminal
procedure. At the end of this period, Samast will be questioned by
a Judge in Children’s court. Since Samast will be sentenced to more
than five years of imprisonment, he may be kept in custody.

Samast will be tried by the Istanbul Children’s High Criminal Court
which has two judges and a public prosecutor.