Release decision issued for Hrant Dink's killer Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast, who had been in prison for 16 years and 10 months, had completed his sentence under conditional release terms a year ago due to good behavior. Samast had been kept under a probationary period by the prison administration.

RELEASED TODAY

Following observations of his personal development, it was concluded that Samast met the conditions for conditional release, and a decision for his release was made.

Samast was released at 19:50 from the Bolu F-Type Prison, where he had been serving his sentence since February. Samast was met by his family upon leaving the prison.

WHO IS OGÜN SAMAST?

Born on June 28, 1990, in Üsküdar, Istanbul, Ogün Samast is 33 years old. His family is from the Düzköy district of Trabzon province. It is known that Samast's parents are separated. A middle school graduate, Samast dropped out of high school in his first year. He also left the jobs he entered shortly after starting them.

WHO IS HRANT DINK?

Hrant Dink was born in 1954 in Malatya. His father was born and raised in the Gürün district of Sivas, and his mother, Gülvart, in the Kangal district of Sivas. His parents divorced after moving to Istanbul in 1961. Hrant and his two siblings were placed in the Armenian Orphanage in Gedikpaşa.

During this time, Dink was influenced by the developing left-wing politics in Turkey and began to engage in politics along the lines of the Communist Party of Turkey / Marxist-Leninist. In those years, he changed his name to Fırat by court order to prevent the organization from being associated with the Armenian community. After finishing high school, he studied zoology at Istanbul University Faculty of Science. Some time later, he married Rakel, with whom he grew up in the orphanage.

He began his writing career with book reviews in some newspapers. He started to make a name for himself with the corrections he sent to inaccurate news reports in the press. He proposed to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul that they publish a newspaper in Turkish and Armenian, saying, "The Armenian community lives very closed off; if we explain ourselves well, prejudices will be broken." He undertook the founding, editorship, and lead authorship of the Agos newspaper, the first issue of which was published on April 5, 1996. Outside of Agos, he wrote for the newspapers Zaman and Birgün.

THE HRANT DINK MURDER

Journalist Hrant Dink was killed by Ogün Samast on January 19, 2007, by three gunshots fired next to his newspaper office. Samast was captured and taken into custody by gendarmes on January 20, 2007, 36 hours after the incident, while he was at the Samsun Bus Terminal intending to go to Trabzon.

Ogün Samast confessed to committing the murder and stated that he "felt no remorse." Because he was 17 years old at the time of the crime, he was tried in a juvenile court and sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison.

It was learned that Samast, who had been in prison for 16 years and 10 months, had completed his sentence under conditional release terms a year ago due to good behavior and had been in a probationary phase by the prison administration during this period.

Following observations of his personal development, it was concluded that Samast met the conditions for conditional release, and his release was decided.