Court rejects release demand of gunman in Turkish-Armenian journalist's assassination

ANKARA (A.A) -  January 23, 2012 - Court of Appeals rejected on Monday the release demand of Ogun Samast, the gunman of assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrank Dink. The court rejected the demand of Samast who has been sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison as he killed Dink and carried unlicensed gun. Dink was shot to death on January 19, 2007 in Istanbul outside the office of his bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos. Last week, Istanbul's 14th Criminal Court found Yasin Hayal guilty for instigating the killing of Dink and sentenced him to "aggravated life imprisonment."  Hayal and all other suspects including Erhan Tuncel were acquitted of acting on orders from a terrorist organization while the court sentenced Tuncel to ten years and a half behind bars in a case on bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.