Two senior police officers charged with negligence over the leaked photos of police and gendarmerie officers posing with the man suspected of murdering Agos editor Hrant Dink were found not guilty yesterday, Anatolia News Agency reports.

'Souvenir photos' with suspect is not a crime, the court decided.

Ultra-nationalist teenager Ogun Samast gunned down Dink outside his newspaper office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007 and was captured by the gendarmerie on his way back to his hometown of Trabzon on the Black Sea.

The murder of Dink, who was tried under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, caused serious domestic and international criticism.

The photos of the suspect with police and gendarmerie officers appeared in the media, causing a huge embarrassment for the department.

Two senior police officers were charged with dereliction of duty by allowing the photos to be taken and then leaked to the media and causing the public to believe the department sympathized with the murder suspect.

The court said there was no evidence the charged officers were responsible for the leak and found both defendants not guilty.