Turkey’s Deputy PM Bulent Arinc reacted to the announcement by Rustem Eryilmaz, the judge who presided over the murder trial of Hrant Dink—the founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian weekly, who was killed in 2007.  

Arinc noted that it is improper for a judge to say he is not satisfied by the verdict. “These words are unbecoming of a court judge. Judges make rulings based on evidence and conscience,” Turkish Deputy PM said, Milliyet daily of Turley informs.     

To Note, Rustem Eryilmaz, the judge who presided over Dink’s murder trial, said the court case did not reveal the background. “With the ruling, the accused were acquitted of being members of a criminal group, but this does not mean such criminal group does not exist. Juridically, we simply did not find the necessary evidence. I believe the idea for the murder was not that of Yasin Hayal. The ruling satisfied no one. And if they were to ask me, I would say, yes, I was not satisfied by the verdict, too,” the trial’s judge noted.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, on Tuesday, 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 10 years and 6 months for an explosion in a McDonald’s store. 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 defendants not guilty of being members of a terrorist organization. And earlier, Hrant Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to a total of 22 years and 10 months for Dink’s murder and for bearing illegal arms. But Samast was tried at a juvenile court, since he was a minor at the time of the murder.