Ogun Samast Hrant Dink's killer Country: Turkey

The Killer of Hrant Dink

Ogun Samast, a young Turk, was arrested on January 20, 2007, on charges of murdering journalist Hrant Dink. During his first interrogation, he admitted his guilt. Ogun Samast was born in 1990. On January 20, 2007, Turkish authorities named Samast as a suspect in the murder of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent who was shot the day before. According to press reports, Ogun's father, Ahmet Samast, a janitor, recognized his son in a widely circulated surveillance camera footage and reported it to the police. On the same day, Samast was arrested, and a gun, presumed to be the murder weapon, was found in his possession during the arrest. In addition to Samast, the police detained several others, including his close friend Yasin Hayal. During the first interrogation, Samast confessed to the murder, while Hayal admitted to incitement, claiming that he provided Samast with the weapon and money for the trip to Istanbul. As reported by the press, the murder was committed out of nationalist motives but was not the result of an organized conspiracy. The trial of the suspects in Dink's murder began in July 2007 and lasted with interruptions for over four years. The process was conducted in closed sessions because Samast was a minor at the time it began. On July 22, 2011, Samast was sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison for the murder and an additional one year and four months for illegal possession of weapons.