BREAKING NEWS: Dink Murderer Sentenced to 22 Years

Dink murder suspect Ogun Samast

ISTANBUL (Hurriyet Daily News)—An Istanbul court sentenced the chief suspect in the 2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to nearly 23 years in prison on Monday, Anatolian news agency reported.

The court condemned Ogün Samast to life in prison, but reduced the sentence to 21-and-a-half years since he was still a minor at the time of the 2007 murder. Samast also received an additional 16-month jail term for possession of an unlicensed weapon.

Samast was 17 and unemployed when he shot the journalist, who had angered nationalists with his articles on Armenians in Turkey.

Dink was the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos. He was shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul’s ªiºli district.