Ogün Samast, convicted assassin of Hrant Dink, released after 16 years in prison

Ogün Samast, the man convicted of assassinating ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, has been released from prison after serving 16 years behind bars.  

On January 19, 2007, Dink, chief editor of Agos, a bilingual weekly newpaper in Turkish and Armenian, was shot dead outside its office in Şişli, İstanbul. 

The assassination carried out by Samast, 17 at the time, sent shockwaves through Turkey and beyond, sparking widespread outrage. 

Sixteen years without Hrant: The killing and the trial

19 January 2023

After fleeing the crime scene following the Samast was apprehended the next day at the bus terminal of Samsun city in northeastern Turkey. The police and gendarmerie officers who captured him hailed him as a hero, with two officers posing with him behind a Turkish flag. Four years after the murder, on July 25, 2011, Samast was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison. He was tried by a juvenile court as he was under 18 at the time of the murder.

He faced charges of premeditated murder and carrying an unlicensed weapon in the 2nd Juvenile Heavy Penal Court. The prosecution sought a prison sentence ranging from 18 years and 8 months to 26 years for Samast. The total sentence included 21 years and 6 months for the charge of premeditated murder and 1 year and 4 months for the charge of carrying an unlicensed weapon.

As for the officials involved in the assassination, the legal proceedings surrounding Dink’s murder were protracted and complex. After 14 years of trials, a court finally reached a verdict, handing down life sentences to several former security officials. Among them were two former police chiefs and two ex-security officers. Former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyürek and his deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer received life imprisonment for “premeditated murder.” Former military officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale also received life sentences. 

Ali Öz, a former gendarmerie commander who oversaw the Trabzon province, where the gunman hailed from, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. 

The court did not rule on the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen and 12 others considered fugitives in the case. However, it stated that several suspects were linked to Gülen’s movement, which is deemed a “terror group” in Turkey and held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt.

The Dink family expressed their dissatisfaction with the verdict, saying that it did not reveal the full extent of the plot behind the assassination of Hrant Dink. They eventually appealed the decision, which acquitted 37 of the 77 defendants and convicted 26.,

The family’s lawyer, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, said that the verdict was “insufficient” and that the investigation and prosecution were "influenced by political factors." (VK)