Murdered journalist Hrant Dink case at Supreme Court of Appeals

The local court delivered its controversial ruling in the murder case on Jan. 17, acquitting all 19 suspects of charges of membership of any kind of criminal organization. The court's decision drew widespread ire in Turkey as people took to the streets to protest the verdict.

After the court released its detailed ruling this week the case file, including records of the hearings, petitions and defense of both sides, was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeals.

In a petition submitted to the Supreme Court of Appeals, Dink's lawyers argued that the court ruling violated the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) by acknowledging the existence of a criminal organization but concluding it could not be located as it remains secret, adding that the court ignored traces of organization in the case. The shortcomings in both the investigation and prosecution phases are listed in eight articles in the petition, which calls for the appeals court to overturn the decision.

The local court handed down a sentence of life imprisonment for Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the murder of Dink, for inciting murder, while another suspect, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of murder charges. Tuncel received 10 years and six months for the unrelated bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in 2004.

Dink, the late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot dead in broad daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in İstanbul.