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TURKISH SUPREME COURT CONFIRMS JAIL TIME FOR JOURNALIST'S MURDER
Carsten Hoffmann
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
March 21, 2012 Wednesday
Germany
March 21--ISTANBUL -- Turkey's supreme court upheld Wednesday a jail
sentence of 22 years and 10 months for the murder of Hrant Fink,
an Armenian-Turkish journalist shot dead in 2007, the Andalou news
agency reported.
An Istanbul court had handed down the sentence for convict Ogun
Samast in July, but also ruled that the murder was not part of an
organized conspiracy.
However, Dink's family and human rights lawyers expressed outrage at
the time, demanding a full resolution of the case, including evidence
of possible connections to Turkish security forces.
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.
He had received several threats ahead of his murder.
The European Court of Human Rights decided in 2010 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.
Carsten Hoffmann
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
March 21, 2012 Wednesday
Germany
March 21--ISTANBUL -- Turkey's supreme court upheld Wednesday a jail
sentence of 22 years and 10 months for the murder of Hrant Fink,
an Armenian-Turkish journalist shot dead in 2007, the Andalou news
agency reported.
An Istanbul court had handed down the sentence for convict Ogun
Samast in July, but also ruled that the murder was not part of an
organized conspiracy.
However, Dink's family and human rights lawyers expressed outrage at
the time, demanding a full resolution of the case, including evidence
of possible connections to Turkish security forces.
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.
He had received several threats ahead of his murder.
The European Court of Human Rights decided in 2010 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.