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PRISON FOR OFFICERS IN MURDER CASE OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Monsters and Critics.com
June 2 2011
Istanbul - A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced six military officers
to up to six months' prison, in connection with the murder of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the semi-official Anatolia
Agency reported.
Dink, the editor-in-chief of bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos,
was gunned down in front of his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.
The former gendarmerie commander for the Black Sea city of Trabzon and
a captain who was chief of intelligence in the provincial gendarmerie
were each sentenced to six months in prison.
Four other officers received prison sentences of four months each,
while two were acquitted.
The Trabzon court convicted the officers of negligence in preventing
Dink's murder, by ignoring intelligence pertaining to a plot to kill
the outspoken journalist.
Dink had been tried twice and convicted once for 'insulting
Turkishness' for articles he published on Armenian issues in Turkey,
drawing the ire of ultra-nationalists.
Ogun Samast, a then-17-year-old youth from Trabzon who has confessed
to the shooting, is currently on trial for the murder.
Samast is alleged to have been recruited by a group that had been
plotting to kill Dink for up to a year beforehand.
Lawyers for Dink's family have accused authorities of taking
insufficient measures to protect the journalist, who had received
death threats prior to his assassination.
In September, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that
the Turkish state had failed to protect Dink's life and his freedom
of expression and ordered the government to pay compensation to
his family.
From: Baghdasarian
Monsters and Critics.com
June 2 2011
Istanbul - A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced six military officers
to up to six months' prison, in connection with the murder of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the semi-official Anatolia
Agency reported.
Dink, the editor-in-chief of bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos,
was gunned down in front of his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.
The former gendarmerie commander for the Black Sea city of Trabzon and
a captain who was chief of intelligence in the provincial gendarmerie
were each sentenced to six months in prison.
Four other officers received prison sentences of four months each,
while two were acquitted.
The Trabzon court convicted the officers of negligence in preventing
Dink's murder, by ignoring intelligence pertaining to a plot to kill
the outspoken journalist.
Dink had been tried twice and convicted once for 'insulting
Turkishness' for articles he published on Armenian issues in Turkey,
drawing the ire of ultra-nationalists.
Ogun Samast, a then-17-year-old youth from Trabzon who has confessed
to the shooting, is currently on trial for the murder.
Samast is alleged to have been recruited by a group that had been
plotting to kill Dink for up to a year beforehand.
Lawyers for Dink's family have accused authorities of taking
insufficient measures to protect the journalist, who had received
death threats prior to his assassination.
In September, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that
the Turkish state had failed to protect Dink's life and his freedom
of expression and ordered the government to pay compensation to
his family.
From: Baghdasarian