The main killer of Grant Dink, a prominent Turkish journalist of Armenian origin who was sentenced in 2011 to 23 years in prison for his murder, was released on Wednesday night for “good behavior”, Turkish media reported, as quoted by AFP.

According to the private channels NTV and CNN Türk and many other publications, including the DHA agency and Agos, the newspaper where Grant Dink worked, Ogun Samast – the one who shot the journalist – was released from Bola prison (north) ” at 19:00: 50 (16:50 GMT) on the grounds that “he was found to be eligible for parole,” NTV reported.

This information has not been confirmed by an official source or any means of public information.

Grant Dink, editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, was assassinated outside his publication’s headquarters on a sidewalk in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.

In a sign of shock over the killing of the 52-year-old journalist, a campaigner for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, more than 100,000 people marched on the day of his funeral.

Guilty, fired for “writing facts”

Ogyun Samast, a minor at the time of the events, eventually spent sixteen years and ten months in prison.

After he was convicted, Grant Dink’s family spent years demanding that the people behind the killing be found, as they did not believe the theory that it was a lone act.

In March 2021, an Istanbul court sentenced four people, including two former police chiefs, to life imprisonment.

According to Turkish media, another 24 defendants were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment at the end of the 131st hearing in the 77-person trial.

However, several security officials, including former police chiefs in Istanbul and Trabzon (northeast Turkey), accused by Grant Dink’s family were acquitted on the grounds that the case was “time-barred”.

“It is clear that someone protected Ogyun Samast”

For the leader of CHP, the main opposition party, Ozgur Ezel, this dismissal is “unbelievable”.

“This is an incredible injustice committed against an important community in Turkey, the Armenian community,” he told online media T24.

“It’s obvious that someone was protecting Ogyun Samast,” he said, adding that if he “can be released for good behavior, it’s really shameless to talk about justice in this country.”

Contacted by AFP, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Turkish representative Erol Onderoğu condemned the “very painful news for the Dink family and for all those who knew this man of peace”.

“Turkey had sixteen years and ten months (the time spent by the murderer in prison, not) to bring to justice all public figures responsible for the preparation of this crime. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” he regretted.

However, according to RSF, “the release of the killer should not mean the end of the search for the truth about this terrible crime.”

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