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TURKISH COURT JAILS MAN FOR 23 YEARS FOR KILLING OF ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Voice of America
July 25, 2011
A Turkish court has sentenced an ultranationalist to almost 23 years
in prison for the assassination of an ethnic Armenian journalist more
than four years ago.
In Monday's ruling, the juvenile court in Istanbul convicted
21-year-old Ogun Samast of murder and illegal firearm possession for
shooting Hrant Dink outside his office in January 2007. Authorities
prosecuted Samast as a minor because he was 17 at the time of the
attack. The court sentenced him to 22 years and 10 months in jail.
Dink was the chief editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
newspaper Agos when he was assassinated. He had angered Turkish
nationalists by describing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in the early 20th century as a "genocide."
Turkey rejects the term and says the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
triggered unrest that killed large numbers of Turks as well as
Armenians.
Turkish authorities have prosecuted dozens of people in connection
with Dink's assassination, including security personnel accused of
ignoring intelligence of ultranationalist plots to kill the journalist.
Dink family lawyer Fethiye Cetin welcomed Monday's sentencing, telling
the Reuters news agency that it will act as an important deterrent
to such crimes.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that Turkish
authorities should pay Dink's family $170,000 in compensation for
failing to protect him from the death threats.
Voice of America
July 25, 2011
A Turkish court has sentenced an ultranationalist to almost 23 years
in prison for the assassination of an ethnic Armenian journalist more
than four years ago.
In Monday's ruling, the juvenile court in Istanbul convicted
21-year-old Ogun Samast of murder and illegal firearm possession for
shooting Hrant Dink outside his office in January 2007. Authorities
prosecuted Samast as a minor because he was 17 at the time of the
attack. The court sentenced him to 22 years and 10 months in jail.
Dink was the chief editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
newspaper Agos when he was assassinated. He had angered Turkish
nationalists by describing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in the early 20th century as a "genocide."
Turkey rejects the term and says the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
triggered unrest that killed large numbers of Turks as well as
Armenians.
Turkish authorities have prosecuted dozens of people in connection
with Dink's assassination, including security personnel accused of
ignoring intelligence of ultranationalist plots to kill the journalist.
Dink family lawyer Fethiye Cetin welcomed Monday's sentencing, telling
the Reuters news agency that it will act as an important deterrent
to such crimes.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that Turkish
authorities should pay Dink's family $170,000 in compensation for
failing to protect him from the death threats.