DINK'S FRIENDS: RETRIAL PROCESS SHOULD SATISFY PUBLIC OPINION
Cihan News Agency, Turkey
Feb 12 2014
Speaking after the fourth hearing of the retrial into the assassination
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, friends of the murdered
journalist said on Wednesday that the retrial should bring about
justice and satisfy the public.
In May 2013, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a court's original
ruling which dismissed the existence of an organized criminal network
in the case.
Speaking in behalf of Dink's friends, Agos newspaper columnist
Karin KarakaÅ~_lı told the press that seven years had passed since
the murder and through all that time, state institutions have been
pointing at each other to acquit themselves in the eyes of public.
Dink was shot by an ultranationalist teenager, Ogun Samast, on Jan.
19, 2007, in front of the Agos newspaper office, where he served as
editor-in-chief. In January 2012, a court ruled on life imprisonment
for Yasin Hayal on charges of instigating the murder; another suspect,
Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of murder charges.
The lower court, which found no evidence that a terrorist organization
was involved in Ogun Samast's assassination of Dink in 2007, had
acquitted the suspects of claims that they had been forming a terrorist
organization. The court did, however, say they were guilty of forming
an illegal and armed organization to commit a crime, prohibited
under Article 220 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). However, after
the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals, a retrial started in May.
From: Baghdasarian
Cihan News Agency, Turkey
Feb 12 2014
Speaking after the fourth hearing of the retrial into the assassination
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, friends of the murdered
journalist said on Wednesday that the retrial should bring about
justice and satisfy the public.
In May 2013, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a court's original
ruling which dismissed the existence of an organized criminal network
in the case.
Speaking in behalf of Dink's friends, Agos newspaper columnist
Karin KarakaÅ~_lı told the press that seven years had passed since
the murder and through all that time, state institutions have been
pointing at each other to acquit themselves in the eyes of public.
Dink was shot by an ultranationalist teenager, Ogun Samast, on Jan.
19, 2007, in front of the Agos newspaper office, where he served as
editor-in-chief. In January 2012, a court ruled on life imprisonment
for Yasin Hayal on charges of instigating the murder; another suspect,
Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of murder charges.
The lower court, which found no evidence that a terrorist organization
was involved in Ogun Samast's assassination of Dink in 2007, had
acquitted the suspects of claims that they had been forming a terrorist
organization. The court did, however, say they were guilty of forming
an illegal and armed organization to commit a crime, prohibited
under Article 220 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). However, after
the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals, a retrial started in May.
From: Baghdasarian