Turkey’s Court of Appeals has rejected the claim presented by the murderer of Hrant Dink Ogun Samast’s lawyer who demanded that Samast should be released.

In his appeal Samast’s lawyer demands that Samast should be set free according to the new Turkish law saying the accused must be freed after being in custody for 5 years during the trial. The Court of Appeals refused the appeal pointing out that Samast was sentenced on July 25, 2011, so before the verdict was delivered Samast had been under arrest for 4 years and 6 months, Hurriyet reports.

To note, due to the appeal of Samast’s lawyer his case had been moved to Istanbul’s Juvenile Court, as the lawyer had pointed out that while committing the murder Samast was a minor.

The Juvenile Court sentenced Samast to 21 years 6 months for committing murder and 1 year 4 months for illegal arms possession. Thus he was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months.

To note, on January 17, the Turkish court found Yasin Hayal guilty of planning and organizing Armenian journalist 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, was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months for an explosion in a McDonald’s store.