Court may decide on Hrant Dink case today

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The Supreme Court of Appeals is set to rule on the ongoing case regarding Hrant Dink’s murder on May 15.

Following a five-year trial, the court had ruled on Jan. 17, 2012, that it saw no “deep state” role in the plotting of the assassination, despite serious claims that a number of civil servants were “indirectly” involved. The ruling was overturned a year later by the Supreme Court of Appeals, which led to prosecutors restarting their probe into the murder.

Additional interrogations of key witnesses have been conducted – including of triggerman Ogün Samast and Yasin Hayal, who was convicted for being the instigator of the murder – and a number of inconsistencies were found. In addition to Samast and Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet İskender, who were both convicted for complicity in the murder, as well as Erhan Tuncel, a former suspect acquitted in the trial, were also asked to give new testimonies.
Dink, the renowned chief editor of Agos, was shot in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.