Suspect in Dink murder gets life term, Dink family lawyer slams ruling

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Turkish court has convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, of instigating a murder and sentenced him to life in prison, while Erhan Tuncel was acquitted of murder charges by the court.

The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the case. Tuncel was given 10 years, six months for his role in a McDonalds bombing in 2004. The court, however, acquitted Hayal and several others of charges of acting under a terrorist organization's orders, angering lawyers who say the trial failed to shed light on alleged connections between the suspects and some state officials.

The Dink family's lawyer, Fethiye Çetin, slammed the ruling, saying it meant that a “state tradition of political murders” was deliberately left intact because it did not deal with accusations of state involvement in the 2007 murder.

“They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did not know they saved the biggest joke for the very end,” she told reporters soon after the verdict was read out. “This ruling means a tradition was left untouched: the state tradition of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against some of its citizens and turning them into enemies." Çetin also vowed to pursue all available legal remedies against the ruling, asserting that the verdict marked the end of only the initial phase of the case, which consisted of the trial of the hitmen in the murder.

The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was shot dead on January 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in İstanbul 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 İstanbul.

The prosecutor had demanded 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, January 17.

The prosecutor said following the verdict that he will file an appeal, objecting to the court's decision, Today’s Zaman reported.