Ogün Samast, the hitman in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot outside the Agos weekly's office in 2007, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in jail on Monday.
Samast, tried in juvenile court because he was a minor at the time of the crime, was sentenced by the court to 21 years, six months for “premeditated murder” and one year, four months for carrying an unlicensed gun.
In his final testimony to the court, Samast called for his acquittal and blamed certain newspapers and columnists, saying what he had read in those papers had incited him to commit the crime. “How else would I have known about Hrant Dink or Agos if they had not written about them,” he told the court.
Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was gunned down outside his office in İstanbul in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007. The hitman, Samast, was captured about one day after the murder. Other suspects, including Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, were captured in the following days on charges of soliciting Samast for Dink's murder.
The murder shocked Turkey and the ensuing trial became mired in controversy with Dink's family and human rights activists arguing that links between suspects in the case and the real masterminds of the murder, suspected to be in the military and police force, were not sufficiently investigated.
Today’s Zaman
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