The Turkish Court of Cassation has upheld the decision of the court of first instance to obligate the Ministry of Interior to pay 1 million and 66 liras (approx. $111,600) to the family of slain Istanbul Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, CNN Turk reports.

Dink's family had filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior—and demanding 1.5 million liras (approx. $167,400) as moral compensation for the ministry’s shortcomings in preventing Dink's assassination.

The court of first instance had examined this case and ordered the Ministry of Interior to compensate Dink's family with 1 million and 66 liras.

The ministry, however, had appealed this decision to the Court of Cassation. But the latter also upheld this verdict by the court of first instance and denied the appeal of the Ministry of Interior.

Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper of Istanbul, was shot dead by Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogun Samast on January 19, 2007, in front of the then office of this paper.

In 2011, Samast was convicted of Dink's assassination, but questions still remain about the involvement of Turkish state security forces in the case.