EU calls for fresh probe into killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist

BRUSSELS (A.A) - A European Union official has urged Turkish officials to launch a fresh investigation into the killing of a Turkish-Armenian journalist five years ago as an Istanbul court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life in prison for instigating the murder but stopping short of convicting him on the charges of acting as part of a clandestine criminal network. Peter Stano, spokesperson for EU's top enlargement official, told the Anadolu Agency that a new probe was needed to bring before justice everyone who might have had a hand in the murder and "interventions by senior [Turkish] officials" in the killing of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.   Stano also recalled that the European Court of Human Rights ruled in September 2010 that Turkey had failed to protect Dink's right to life. Dink was shot dead on January 19, 2007 in Istanbul outside the offices of his weekly Agos.  Gunman Ogun Samast was sentenced last July to nearly 23 years in prison by a separate juvenile court.    The Istanbul court in Tuesday's ruling sentenced Yasin Hayal to lifetime imprisonment but said he was had not acted under orders from a wider criminal network which had been suspected of involving high level state officials, police and military officers. The court acquitted Erhan Tuncel, another suspected instigator, of charges of being involved in the criminal network.  However, Tuncel was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison in a case over the bombing of McDonalds restaurant in 2004 in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon and the court ordered his release from prison since he had completed his term while awaiting a verdict.