Problem not solved by convicting hitman in Dink murder, expert says

July 28, 2011 - 16:00 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish studies expert Artak Shakaryan believes that only the executor of crime was punished for the murder of Hrant Dink, Agos Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor-in-chief.

“Convicting a person who merely pulled the trigger does not resolve the problem,” the expert said, noting that neither the initiator of murder, nor the policemen aware of the crime to be perpetrated were punished.

Ogun Samast, the hitman in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot outside the Agos weekly's office in 2007, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in jail on Monday, July 25. Samast, tried in juvenile court because he was a minor at the time of the crime, was sentenced by the court to 21 years, six months for premeditated murder and one year, four months for carrying an unlicensed gun. Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was gunned down outside his office in Istanbul in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007. The hitman, Samast, was captured about one day after the murder. Other suspects, including Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, were captured in the following days on charges of soliciting Samast for Dink's murder.