Hundreds rally in Istanbul as Dink murder trial resumes

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 25th hearing in the trial of 19 suspects in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink began on Tuesday, Jan 17, with the court hearing the case expected to issue its ruling, Today’s Zaman reports.

The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in Istanbul in broad daylight. The investigation into his murder has stalled; the suspected perpetrator and his accomplices were put on trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him have yet to be exposed and punished.

A group called Hrant's Friends, who hold demonstrations before each trial demanding justice, also held a demonstration in front of the courthouse on Tuesday. Hundreds of people held placards that read “This case won't end this way” outside the courthouse in Istanbul.

The prosecutor is demanding life imprisonment for seven men accused of involvement in the killing of Dink.

“It's been five years. All the evidence clearly shows we can't be satisfied with the punishment of two or three people who committed the murder. Those who pointed to Dink, who said, ‘Kill him,' who waited for him to be killed are all about to come out of this clean,” Hrant's Friends said in a statement on Monday.