ISTANBUL. – No verdict was reached during the first Court of Cassation hearing into the murder case of Hrant Dink—the founder and chief editor Agos, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his office building. 

The court examined the lawsuit by the attorney of Ersin Yolcu—who is sentenced to twelve years and six months for being an accessory to Dink’s murder—, and decided to examine it on May 15, CNN Turk reports.

In addition, the court overruled the Dink attorneys’’ motions to participate and make a statement in the session, claiming that the Court of Cassation is not a first instance court and there will not be a new trial. 

The other eighteen defendants, who are sentenced along the lines of Dink’s murder case, were not summoned to the Court of Cassation and, as a result, their cases will be examined solely without hearings.          

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, on January 17, 2012 the Turkish court found Yasin Hayal guilty of planning and organizing Hrant Dink’s murder, and sentenced him to life in prison. Erhan Tuncel, on the other hand, was found not guilty of prompting Dink’s murder, and, instead, he was sentenced to ten years and six months for an explosion in a McDonald’s restaurant. But taking into account that Tuncel was already incarcerated for that amount of time, the court ruled his release.

The court also found the nineteen other defendants not guilty of being members of a terrorist organization.