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JUVENILE COURT TO TRY ALLEGED KILLER OF ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Agence France Presse
October 25, 2010 Monday 12:41 PM GMT
The alleged killer of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is to be
tried before a juvenile court as he was a minor at the time of the
shooting in January 2007, media reports said Monday.
They said an assize court trying Ogun Samast and two alleged
accomplices accepted Monday his lawyers' plea that his case be
transferred because he was 17 when the murder took place, the
reports said.
The ruling sparked an angry reaction from Dink's family, with the
Anatolia news agency quoting his brother Hosrof as condemning an
"injustice."
But a retired prosecutor in Turkey's top court, Ahmet Gundel, told
the NTV news channel it would make no difference to the possible
penalty Samast would face.
The 52-year-old Dink was shot dead in central Istanbul on January 19,
2007, outside the offices of Agos, the weekly newspaper he ran.
Dink, a prominent member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community,
campaigned for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation but was hated by
nationalists for describing the mass killings of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, a label that Ankara fiercely rejects.
Samast, the self-confessed hitman, went on trial in July 2007.
Monday's court hearing was the 15th in the case.
A total of 20 people have been charged in connection with the killing.
From: A. Papazian
Agence France Presse
October 25, 2010 Monday 12:41 PM GMT
The alleged killer of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is to be
tried before a juvenile court as he was a minor at the time of the
shooting in January 2007, media reports said Monday.
They said an assize court trying Ogun Samast and two alleged
accomplices accepted Monday his lawyers' plea that his case be
transferred because he was 17 when the murder took place, the
reports said.
The ruling sparked an angry reaction from Dink's family, with the
Anatolia news agency quoting his brother Hosrof as condemning an
"injustice."
But a retired prosecutor in Turkey's top court, Ahmet Gundel, told
the NTV news channel it would make no difference to the possible
penalty Samast would face.
The 52-year-old Dink was shot dead in central Istanbul on January 19,
2007, outside the offices of Agos, the weekly newspaper he ran.
Dink, a prominent member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community,
campaigned for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation but was hated by
nationalists for describing the mass killings of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, a label that Ankara fiercely rejects.
Samast, the self-confessed hitman, went on trial in July 2007.
Monday's court hearing was the 15th in the case.
A total of 20 people have been charged in connection with the killing.
From: A. Papazian