Hrant Dink trial not over yet, justice minister says

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

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The case into the 2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is not yet complete, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said today, a day after an Istanbul court issued a contentious decision in the murder trial.

The appeals stage is still to come, Ergin said. "I will be able to comment on it when the trial process is complete.” 

The court ruled yesterday that Dink's murder was not the work of a terrorist organization and released a key suspect in the case while sentencing another to life in prison, sparking anger from the victim’s family and lawyers, who wanted to see more alleged co-conspirators sentenced. 

My conscience is restless: deputy prime minister 

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said he was “on the side of people whose conscience remained restless and unsatisfied” over the ruling during a show on TV8.
 
Arınç said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) administration delivered the perpetrators within 30 hours of the killing and completed their part in the ongoing process. 

"It has been seen that the ruling did not satisfy people's conscience ... but the way to react to this is not to yell and scream, blame the government and accuse the state,” Arınç said.  

Arınç also said the trial was not yet over and added that the prosecutor could appeal the ruling.

Dink was gunned down in front of Agos, his weekly Turkish-Armenian newspaper, on Jan. 19, 2007.

Triggerman Ogün Samast was sentenced to over 22 years in jail for the murder last year.