Istanbul, January 15, 2025—Turkish authorities should not stop their efforts to find those behind the conspiracy to murder Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
On January 9, an Istanbul court reached a verdict in the latest of many trials over Dink’s 2007 fatal shooting in Istanbul. Dink, managing editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, had received numerous death threats from nationalist Turks who saw his critical reporting, for which he was convicted of “insulting” Turkish identity, as treachery; his killing roiled the country.
The 15 defendants in the latest trial, which started in 2023, were in court charged with having ties to the recently deceased exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkey’s government accused of maintaining a terrorist organization, which it calls FETÖ, and blamed for a failed 2016 military coup. Authorities have alleged that people aligned with Gülen played a role in Dink’s murder.
Also on January 9, the same Istanbul court held a retrial for some of the defendants in the murder conspiracy case following a 2021 verdict, with the case set to resume on February 7.
Read also
“The multiple trials and retrials since the heinous murder of journalist Hrant Dink have been influenced by daily politics in the past 18 years and therefore have failed to achieve justice and closure for the Dink family,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should heed the demands of the family lawyers and leave no stone unturned to uncover this conspiracy and end this almost two-decade-old shame on the country for good.”
In the 2022 request for an appeal of the main case, currently before the Supreme Court of Appeals, the Dink family lawyers listed many objections to how authorities handled the case, from the investigation to the trial, including: efforts to undermine Dink’s credibility, ignoring or not properly collecting evidence, and protecting or not investigating suspects possibly linked to the conspiracy.
Two defendants received life sentences, while lesser charges against some, including the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being a member” against the recently released convicted shooter Ogün Samast, were dropped due to the statute of limitations.
The court also dropped the “aiding a terrorist organization without being a member” charge against defendants Ahmet İskender, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Tuncay Uzundal, Zeynel Abidin Yavuz, and Ersin Yolçu, but sentenced Ali Fuat Yılmazer and Ramazan Akyürek to life in prison for “attempting to eliminate the constitutional order” and imposed a sentence of six years, 10 months, and 15 days for Adem Sağlam on a “[terrorist] organization membership” charge.
CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul for comment on the case but did not receive a reply.
Committee to Protect Journalists
On the photo:
Demonstrators hold a banner reading ‘For Hrant, For Justice’ during a gathering in front of a courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 26, 2021. In the latest trial related to the 2007 murder of Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, an Istanbul court dismissed a terrorism-related charge against Dink’s killer due to the statute of limitations on January 9, 2025. (AFP/Ozan Kose)
