HRANT DINK MURDER

Final Plea Expected for Coming Hearing

The prosecutor is going to prepare his final plea in the case against murder suspect Ogün Samast for the coming hearing on 17 June. Samast stands accused of murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink; he described himself as a victim of circumstances.

Erol Önderoğlu

The trial against Ogün Samast, triggerman suspect of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, has reached its final stage.

At the fourth hearing of the trial on Wednesday (25 May), the Sultanahmet (Istanbul) 2^nd Juvenile High Criminal Court decided to allow Public Prosecutor Ali Demir time till 17 June to prepare his final plea.

Aspiring university studies

Samast brought two books to the Wednesday hearing, i.e. "What we did not do for this homeland" written by Şükran Pakkan and "An Armenian" by Adem Yavuz Arslan. The latter work deals with the murder of Dink, then Editor-in-Chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, on 19 January 2007. Samast said that he desired to finish high school in adult education and study sociology at university afterwards.

"Is a juvenile court going to find out what a State Security Court could not reveal?"

Defendant Samast summarized the period of time that eventually lead to the murder of journalist Dink. Judge İsmet Gülbiçim asked him if all the events leading to the crime were coincidences. Samast replied, "Coincidence. Chance. Hap. Is something that did not emerge within 4.5 years going to emerge now? They should have a look at the video records. Is a juvenile court going to find out what a State Security Court was not able to find?"

Murder trial on 30 May

The Dink murder trial including 19 defendants who were allegedly involved in the killing will continue before the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court on 30 May. (EÖ/VK)

Origin

BIA News Center

Erol Önderoğlu

[email protected]

all articles of the author

A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without...

A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where he began as a reporter in 1996. Since 1999, he has worked at bianet, a project of the IPS Communication Foundation, as the coordinator of the Legal Support Desk, editor for freedom of expression, and editor-in-chief. He has authored more than 4,800 signed news articles and opinion pieces. He has also written for Bizim Gazete and the journal Güncel Hukuk. He currently prepares the Media Monitoring Reports at bianet.