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TURKEY JAILS MAN OVER ARMENIAN JOURNALIST'S MURDER
NOW LEBANON
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=353699
Jan 17 2012
A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life in prison for
inciting the murder of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink five years ago.
But the Istanbul court also ruled that the killing of Dink - who had
angered nationalists with his views on Turkish-Armenian history -
was not a wider conspiracy, as alleged by his supporters.
The court found Yasin Hayal, 31, guilty of incitement to kill Dink in
2007 but acquitted more than a dozen other suspects, a ruling which
provoked the anger of the journalist's family and lawyers.
Dink was shot to death on a busy street outside the offices of his
bilingual Agos newspaper in downtown Istanbul.
The self-confessed murderer, 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout
Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison last July.
Tuesday's case was about 19 suspected accomplices to Dink's murder.
Another prime suspect, Erhan Tuncel, a police informer, was sentenced
to 10 and a half years' jail, but for another crime - the 2004 bombing
of a McDonalds restaurant in the northern Turkish city of Trabzon.
The Istanbul court acquitted all suspects of the charge of acting
as members of an illegal armed organization, a ruling denounced by
Dink's lawyers who says the journalist's murder was a planned act.
Dink's assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey and grew into a
wider scandal after reports that the security forces had known of a
plot to kill him but failed to act.
Dink had been receiving death threats from hardline nationalists.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52,
campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their
bloody history.
Nationalists however hated him for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule a genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.
Dozens of intellectuals, politicians and activists had gathered Tuesday
in downtown Istanbul demanding a broader probe into Dink's murder.
The group, also including Dink's widow Rakel, marched to the court,
calling for the punishment of state officials they accuse of being
behind the murder.
Mehmet Bekaroglu, a politician, told AFP that "the public consciousness
will not be relieved unless those behind the gunmen are unmasked."
Protesters chanted: "Those who ordered the murder should be judged."
Sevinc Ozipek, 51, wearing a headscarf and carrying a picture of Dink,
demanded: "We want the real criminals to be unmasked."
NOW LEBANON
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=353699
Jan 17 2012
A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life in prison for
inciting the murder of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink five years ago.
But the Istanbul court also ruled that the killing of Dink - who had
angered nationalists with his views on Turkish-Armenian history -
was not a wider conspiracy, as alleged by his supporters.
The court found Yasin Hayal, 31, guilty of incitement to kill Dink in
2007 but acquitted more than a dozen other suspects, a ruling which
provoked the anger of the journalist's family and lawyers.
Dink was shot to death on a busy street outside the offices of his
bilingual Agos newspaper in downtown Istanbul.
The self-confessed murderer, 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout
Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison last July.
Tuesday's case was about 19 suspected accomplices to Dink's murder.
Another prime suspect, Erhan Tuncel, a police informer, was sentenced
to 10 and a half years' jail, but for another crime - the 2004 bombing
of a McDonalds restaurant in the northern Turkish city of Trabzon.
The Istanbul court acquitted all suspects of the charge of acting
as members of an illegal armed organization, a ruling denounced by
Dink's lawyers who says the journalist's murder was a planned act.
Dink's assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey and grew into a
wider scandal after reports that the security forces had known of a
plot to kill him but failed to act.
Dink had been receiving death threats from hardline nationalists.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52,
campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their
bloody history.
Nationalists however hated him for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule a genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.
Dozens of intellectuals, politicians and activists had gathered Tuesday
in downtown Istanbul demanding a broader probe into Dink's murder.
The group, also including Dink's widow Rakel, marched to the court,
calling for the punishment of state officials they accuse of being
behind the murder.
Mehmet Bekaroglu, a politician, told AFP that "the public consciousness
will not be relieved unless those behind the gunmen are unmasked."
Protesters chanted: "Those who ordered the murder should be judged."
Sevinc Ozipek, 51, wearing a headscarf and carrying a picture of Dink,
demanded: "We want the real criminals to be unmasked."