Hrant Dink murder case convict extradited from Kyrgyzstan to Turkey

A suspect who was previously sentenced in the Hrant Dink assassination case has been extradited from Kyrgyzstan to Turkey.

Monday March 28 2022 11:32 am

Duvar English

A suspect sought over his involvement in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has been brought to Turkey from Kyrgyzstan.

The suspect named Ahmet İskender was previously sentenced to 14 years and four months in the murder case.

The Interpol-Europol department of Turkey’s General Directorate of Security announced the convict's arrest in a statement on social media.

“Ahmet İskender, who was found to have hidden the weapon used in the Dink assassination, lent money to the perpetrator for the murder and had his mobile phone used as a communication tool for the murder, has been caught in Kyrgyzstan and brought to Turkey,” it said.

Hrant DİNK suikastında kullanılan silahı sakladığı, faile cinayet için borç para verdiği, cep telefonunu cinayet için iletişim aracı olarak kullandırdığı tespit edilen Ahmet İSKENDER, Kırgızistan'da yakalanarak Türkiye'ye getirilmiş ve tutuklanmıştır.https://t.co/bhUqOenoBI
— İnterpol-Europol Daire Başkanlığı (@interpoldaire) March 27, 2022

Dink, editor-in-chief of Agos Newspaper, was shot dead 15 years ago, with a gunshot to the head in front of the newspaper building in Istanbul by then 17-year-old Ogün Samast.

Dink had worked for reconciliation between Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks and was repeatedly prosecuted for insulting "Turkishness" over his comments on Armenian identity and the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

An Istanbul court ruled in July 2021 that the murder was carried out upon the orders of the Gülen network, which the Turkish authorities refer to as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).