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LIFE SENTENCE FOR TURKISH JOURNALIST'S MURDER
MWC News
http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/16238-turkish-journalist.html
Media With Conscience
Jan 17 2012
A Turkish court has convicted a man for instigating the killing of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist five years ago, sentencing him to life
imprisonment.
Hrant Dink was the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad when he was shot
as he left his office in Istanbul in January 2007. He was 52.
The Istanbul court on Tuesday sentenced Yasin Hayal, 31, to life
imprisonment and cleared 19 defendants of a charge of being part of
a terrorist group.
Last July a juvenile court sentenced Dink's self-confessed assassin,
Ogun Samast, to 22 years and 10 months in jail. He was 17 when the
killing took place.
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 acquittal of all the suspects of the charge of acting as members
of an illegal armed organisation was denounced by Dink's lawyers who
say the murder was a planned act.
Broader inquiry urged
Dozens of intellectuals, politicians and activists had gathered on
Tuesday in Istanbul's commercial hub demanding a broader investigation
into Dink's murder.
The group, which included Dink's widow, Rakel, marched to the court,
calling for the punishment of state officials they accuse of being
behind the murder.
Protesters chanted: "Those who ordered the murder should be judged."
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 ultra-nationalist Turks.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink campaigned
for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their bloody
history.
Nationalists hated him, however, for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule a genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.
The Dink case has been closely followed by the European Union as it
underlined concerns over Turkey's human-rights record and democratic
credentials.
MWC News
http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/16238-turkish-journalist.html
Media With Conscience
Jan 17 2012
A Turkish court has convicted a man for instigating the killing of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist five years ago, sentencing him to life
imprisonment.
Hrant Dink was the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad when he was shot
as he left his office in Istanbul in January 2007. He was 52.
The Istanbul court on Tuesday sentenced Yasin Hayal, 31, to life
imprisonment and cleared 19 defendants of a charge of being part of
a terrorist group.
Last July a juvenile court sentenced Dink's self-confessed assassin,
Ogun Samast, to 22 years and 10 months in jail. He was 17 when the
killing took place.
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 acquittal of all the suspects of the charge of acting as members
of an illegal armed organisation was denounced by Dink's lawyers who
say the murder was a planned act.
Broader inquiry urged
Dozens of intellectuals, politicians and activists had gathered on
Tuesday in Istanbul's commercial hub demanding a broader investigation
into Dink's murder.
The group, which included Dink's widow, Rakel, marched to the court,
calling for the punishment of state officials they accuse of being
behind the murder.
Protesters chanted: "Those who ordered the murder should be judged."
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 ultra-nationalist Turks.
A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink campaigned
for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their bloody
history.
Nationalists hated him, however, for calling the massacres of Armenians
under Ottoman rule a genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.
The Dink case has been closely followed by the European Union as it
underlined concerns over Turkey's human-rights record and democratic
credentials.