Turkey court orders 1 million lira compensation for Hrant Dink's family

PanARMENIAN.Net - A court in Istanbul has ordered the Turkish Interior Ministry to pay over 1 million 66 thousand liras ($119,000) to the family of the slain Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief of Agos newspaper Hrant Dink.

Dink's family, who was murdered, filed a lawsuit for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages in the amount of 1.5 million liras against the Ministry of Interior accusing it of negligence that resulted in the murder of Dink on January 19, 2007.

The Istanbul 6th Administrative Court pointed out that Dink had become a target due to articles published in the Agos Newspaper, his right to life was in a clear and imminent danger, and that protective measures should have been taken even without such a request.

The court unanimously decided to accept the compensation claim as 466, 781TL for material and 600,000 TL for non-pecuniary damages, Agos reports.

Dink, a founder and editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos newspaper, was gunned down in broad daylight in front of his Istanbul office in 2007 by Ogün Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high school dropout and an ultranationalist. Samast confessed to the killing and was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail.