SUSPECT GETS 23 YEARS FOR MURDER OF JOURNALIST DINK IN TURKEY

Monsters and Critics.com
July 25, 2011

Istanbul – An Istanbul court on Monday sentenced Ogun Samast to 22
years and 10 months in jail for the murder four and a half years ago
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The trial was held by a juvenile court as the accused was 17 at the
time of the murder, the Anadolu press agency reported, stating that
Samast was also found guilty of illegal possession of a weapon.

Dink, the publisher of the Turkish-Armenia weekly Agos, had been
targeted by Turkish ultranationalists for calling the Ottoman-era
massacre of Armenians a genocide, a political taboo in Turkey.

Samast, who shot Dink in an Istanbul street in January 2007, confessed
to the act soon after. The attack on Dink, who had received a number
of threats, triggered international consternation.

In connection with the murder, the court in June sentenced several
police officers to jail for dereliction of duty for not preventing
the attack despite having concrete information of a plot.

Politicians and friends of Dink have in the past called for a more
complete investigation of the crime to identify the forces behind the
scenes who ordered the crime, accusing the Turkish state of providing
cover for the real culprits.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights decided that the
government in Ankara had failed in its obligation to protect Dink’s
life, stating that Turkish authorities had been informed of the murder
plans of Turkish nationalists.